Computer museum

The Computer History Museum

A computer museum is a museum devoted to the study of historic computer hardware and software, where

Overview

a museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment, for the purposes of education, study, and enjoyment," as defined by the International Council of Museums.^[1].

Some computer museums exist within a larger institution, such as the Science Museum in London and the Deutsches Museum in Munich. Others, such as the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, the Heinz Nixdorf Museum in Paderborn, and The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, are dedicated specifically to computing. Some specialize in the early history of computing, others in the era that started with the first personal computers such as the Apple I and Altair 8800, Apple IIs, older Apple Macintoshes, Commodore Internationals, Amigas, IBM PCs and more rare computers such as the Osborne 1. Some concentrate more on research and conservation, others more on education and entertainment.

There are also some private collections. Microsoft have their own computer museum at their headquarters which is open to the public, and at one time Apple Computer also had a museum open to the public.

Bletchley Park conserves and exhibits equipment associated with British code-breaking activities during the Second World War.

The UK National Archive for the History of Computing in Manchester, England ^[2] concentrates on the preservation of historical documents related to computing, rather than on the computers themselves.

Other collections exist only in online form. There is an extensive hardware collection at old-computers.com^[3], first opened online in 1996. As of 2006, it includes 935 computers, 84 consoles and 98 pongs. However, old-computers.com is missing many vintage systems such as the Macintosh Classic from 1990. Collections of software and documentation also exist online, for example at Bitsavers^[4].

Computer history museum (U.S.)

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

A Cray-2 supercomputer at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

An example of Google's custom server racks on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

History

The Computer History Museum is a museum established in 1996 in Mountain View, California, when The Computer Museum (TCM, in Boston) sent the majority of its historical collection to Moffett Field, California, so that TCM could concentrate on computing-related exhibits for children. Thus, it was originally the West Coast division of The Computer Museum, named The Computer Museum History Center^[5] until it shortened its name in 2001, dedicated to preserving and presenting the stories and artifacts of the information age, and exploring the computing revolution and its impact on our lives.

Former media executive John Hollar was appointed CEO of The Computer History Museum in July 2008.

When The Computer Museum in Boston closed in 1999, its exhibit collection was absorbed into the Museum of Science collection in Boston. In February 2000 the remaining historical artifacts were sent to The Computer Museum History Center at Moffett Field.

Originally located at Moffett Field in an old building that was previously the Naval Base furniture store, the museum acquired its current building (previously occupied by Silicon Graphics), in Mountain View, California, USA (Silicon Valley) in October 2002. It opened there to the public in June 2003.

Collections

The Computer History Museum is home to the largest and most significant collection of computing artifacts in the world. This includes many rare or one-of-a-kind objects such as a Cray-1 supercomputer^[6] as well as a Cray-2, Cray-3 and on request, Cray-4 parts, the Utah teapot, the 1969 Neiman Marcus Kitchen Computer, Hewitt Crane's all-magnetic computer, an Apple I, an example of the first generation of Google's racks of custom-designed web servers^[7], and the first coin-operated video game. The collection comprises nearly 50,000 objects, photographs and films, as well as 4,000 feet (1,200 m) of catalogued documentation and several hundred gigabytes of software.

Other Photographs from the Computer History Museum

Cray-1 near the Visible Storage room
Cray-1A power supply
Visible Storage
Visible Storage
Shakey

The National Museum of Computing

The National Museum of Computing is a museum in the United Kingdom dedicated to collecting and restoring historic computer systems. The museum is based at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, and opened on July 12 2007. It is fully open to the public on Thursdays and Saturdays. Access to the museum is free to paying visitors to Bletchley Park.

On display in the museum are many famous early computing era machines, including the Colossus computer, a machine that helped break German encryption during World War II. ^[8] The Colossus rebuild project is open to visitors seven days a week.

The museum includes iconic machines from the 1960s such as the Elliott 803 and 905, an ICL 2966 mainframe from the 1980s, a wide range of analogue computers, a hands-on retrocomputing room, a gaming room, and several restoration projects such as the PDP-8 and the PDP-11-based air traffic control system from London Terminal Control Centre at West Drayton near London.

The museum is managed by the CodesandCiphers Heritage Trust,^[9] a registered charity. The title The National Museum of Computing is an operating name.

The initial cost of opening the museum was around £250,000. ^[10] Fundraising continues, and the museum has recently received donations from PGP Corporation,^[11] IBM and HP.

American Computer Museum

The American Computer Museum is a museum of the history of computing located in Bozeman, Montana. It was founded in May 1990 by Barbara and George Keremedjiev as a non-profit organization. The museum was originally intended to have been located in Princeton, New Jersey, but the location was changed when the founders moved to Bozeman. It is likely the oldest extant museum dedicated to the history of computers in the world. The Computer Museum in Boston opened first, but it closed in 1999.

The museum's mission is:

"To collect, preserve, interpret, and display the artifacts and history of the information age."

Some computer museums

This list is incomplete. See also Category:Computer museums.

American Computer Museum, the oldest currently operating one
Bletchley Park in Bletchley, England
The National Museum of Computing in Bletchley, England
Computer History Museum, the largest
DigiBarn Computer Museum in Boulder Creek, California
Rhode Island Computer Museum
The Computer Museum, Boston, closed in 1999
Personal Computer Museum in Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Heinz Nixdorf Museum in Paderborn, Germany (also claims to be the largest)
The Centre for Computing History in Haverhill, Suffolk, UK Computer Museum

Notes

↑ ICOM Statutes. International Council of Museums. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
↑ http://www.chstm.manchester.ac.uk/research/nahc/
↑ http://www.old-computers.com/
↑ http://www.bitsavers.org/
↑ Backgrounder Press release on the Computer History Museum website.
↑ The Cray-1 was a supercomputer designed by a team including Seymour Cray for Cray Research. The first Cray-1 system was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976, and it went on to become one of the best known and most successful supercomputers in history.
↑ How Google Works, David F. Carr - Baseline Magazine July 6th 2006
↑ UK computer history gets new home
↑ The National Museum of Computing
↑ Bletchley Park to home 'English Role’ in modern day computing
↑ Bletchley receives £57,000

External links

All links are retrieved January 8, 2009.

The Computer History Museum
Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum
The National Museum of Computing
The Museum of Computing
The Centre for Computing History UK Computer Museum
Computer History Museum website.
Computer History Museum videos.
Catalog Search - Search for the museum collections
WAVE report on the Computer History Museum, with many photographs of interesting artifacts. Note: many links on this site do fail because their letter case does not match that of the destination file. Try altering the URL to access the file's directory instead.
American Computer Museum website

Credits

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[1] ICOM Statutes. International Council of Museums. Retrieved 2008-04-05.

[2] ttp://www.chstm.manchester.ac.uk/research/nahc/

[3] ttp://www.old-computers.com/

[4] ttp://www.bitsavers.org/

[5] Backgrounder Press release on the Computer History Museum website.

[6] The Cray-1 was a supercomputer designed by a team including Seymour Cray for Cray Research. The first Cray-1 system was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976, and it went on to become one of the best known and most successful supercomputers in history.

[7] How Google Works, David F. Carr - Baseline Magazine July 6th 2006

[8] UK computer history gets new home

[9] The National Museum of Computing

[10] Bletchley Park to home 'English Role’ in modern day computing

[11] Bletchley receives £57,000

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