games; documentation; computer
paraphernalia; and related devices. The
related Electricity Collection includes
electronic components; microchips;
cellular telephones; and personal digital assistants. Printers are distributed
among the Computer Collection, the
Photography Collection, and the Printing Collection. Indeed, the process of
digital convergence increasingly links
all the collecting units in the Division.
Further information about all of the
components of the Division is available
from the museum’s Web site: http://
americanhistory.si.edu. Among the
materials there are transcripts of oral
and video history interviews with leaders in American computing including
J. Presper Eckert, Seymour Cray, Kenneth Olsen, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and
Larry Ellison.
In addition to the holdings of the
curatorial division, the museum’s Archives Center has a number of comput-er-related collections (see http://ameri-canhistory.si.edu/archives). Among its
holdings are papers of Grace Murray
Hopper, Ralph Baer, and Herb Grosch.
Of particular interest are transcripts and
other materials from a Computer Oral
History project sponsored by the American Federation of Information Processing Societies in the 1960s and 1970s
(see http://invention.smithsonian.org/
resources/ fa_comporalhist_index.aspx ).
Although the computer collection
is readily available to researchers, currently, little of it is on physical display
at the museum. A major exhibition on
the history of computing and communications, “Information Age: People,
Information, and Technology” ran
from 1990–2006, but has now closed.
A new exhibition that will include coverage of digital computing is currently
under development. Tentatively titled
“American Enterprise,” it is slated to be
the Smithsonian’s first comprehensive
Smithsonian exhibition on the history
of the American economy and to survey
innovation in finance, manufacturing,
agriculture, energy, information technology, and communications from the
late 18th century to the present.
David K. Allison ( allisond@si.edu) is chairman of the
information technology and communications department
at the national museum of american history in
Washington, d.c.
copyright held by author.
Highlights of the
U.S. National Museum
of American History
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1. The “First Computer Bug,” 1947:
The smithsonian has the research
notebook with what is reputedly the
“first computer bug,” a moth taken
from a register in the Mark ii computer
at harvard and taped into the notebook
with the note “first actual case of bug
being found.”
2. a UNiVaC i Console, 1951: in ad-
dition to the Console, the collection
includes a mercury delay line memory
unit and an arithmetic chassis unit.
3. The institute for advanced study
Computer, 1952: developed at Princeton’s
institute for advanced study in Princ-
eton, NJ, the design for this computer
was replicated in other early machines,
such as MaNiaC at Los alamos and iL-
LiaC at the University of illinois.
4. an iBM 650, 1954: This is an example
of iBM’s first mass-produced computer.
The smithsonian has a console unit
and card reader/punch, plus documen-
tation.
5. a digital equipment Corporation
PdP- 8 minicomputer, 1965: The collec-
tion includes both the processor and
documentation.
6. The “Brown Box,” 1967: a prototype
for the first video game developed by
inventor ralph Baer.
7. a Xerox alto, 1973: developed at
Xerox’s Palo alto research Center,
this device paved the way to graphical
user interfaces and networked desktop
computers.
8. early personal computers,
1975–present: The smithsonian collec-
tion includes a range of personal com-
puters including several altair 8800s,
apple iis, radio shack Trs-80s, iBM
PCs, an apple Lisa, a Timex sinclair,
and one of Michael dell’s PC Limited
computers, as well as more modern
devices.
9. CiX router, 1994: This Cisco systems
7500 router was used between 1994 and
2001 as part of the first Commercial
internet exchange. it was a private,
membership organization that allowed
networks to exchange internet traffic
directly, regardless of which network
the customer obtained service from, at
no additional charge for the traffic.
10. deep Blue, 1997: The smithsonian
has one of the two towers of iBM’s deep
Blue computer, which won the first
regulation chess match against a world
champion.
