Here is a article I found in the archives at ‘Smithsonian Museum’ online website, see how easy it is to by using the internet you can just about reseach anybody or anything.
Click on this link and do your own research”http://www.smithsonianmag.com/“.
Many important objects from the Computer History Collection were on exhibition in Information Age: People, Information and Technology, a 14,000 square foot display that was located on the first floor of the National Museum of American History. Opened in May 1990, the exhibition surveys the history of information technology and its relation to society from the origin of the telegraph to the present.
The display featured over 900 original artifacts. They included Samuel Morse’s telegraphs, Alexander Bell’s telephones, a Hollerith punched card machine, a 4-rotor German ENIGMA encoder used during World War II, the ENIAC computer, the TELESTAR test satellite, an automotive welding robot, a selection of early personal computers, and digital high definition television.
Theme
Information Age centered on the technical evolution of electrical and electronic information technology. The telegraph began a revolution in communications by transmitting information in electrical form instantly to distant locations. This new phenomenon of instant information was later expanded by the telephone, radio and television. Then the digital electronic computer made it possible to process information instantly. As the computer developed and matured, communication and processing technologies were joined into networks that now stretch around the world, affecting all areas of global society.
Although the exhibition was built around this technical theme, its emphasis was as much on social as technical change. The transformations in information technology came in a context of social forces such as business, politics, wars, and consumer interests. The exhibition highlighted the interaction between these social forces and the development of information technology.
Objects
Computer Collections Sample
Click on an object for more information
The Computer History Collection includes artifacts relating to the production, collection, modification, manipulation, and use of information in modern American society. The collection comprises artifacts employed in the processing of information as opposed to its simple communication. By processing, we mean operations of objects that involve the following functions:
- Encoding, or getting data into a machine in coded form
- Storage, or preserving the data or information within the device
- Modification, or changing the data within the device.
- Decoding, or getting data out of the device into symbols that humans can understand.
Data processing objects in the computer collections are all electronic, as earlier processing equipment is in the mathematics collections or other collections in the museum. Because information technology is ubiquitous, other units of the museum also rightly collect artifacts of information technology related to specific processing tasks (e.g. robotic machine tools, typewriters, printing presses, and photographic equipment).
Approximate numbers of objects in the collection:
| Mainframe computers or components | 25 |
| Minicomputers | 10 |
| Supercomputers | 4 |
| Microcomputers | 50 |
| Other digital devices | 15 |
| Analog computers | 10 |
| Computer peripherals | 100 |
| Software | 500 |
| Electronic components | 1000 |
| Electronic calculators | 450 |
| Documentation | 150 cubic feet |
The Computer History Collection includes artifacts relating to the production, collection, modification, manipulation, and use of information in modern American society. The collection comprises artifacts employed in the processing of information as opposed to its simple communication. By processing, we mean operations of objects that involve the following functions:
- Encoding, or getting data into a machine in coded form
- Storage, or preserving the data or information within the device
- Modification, or changing the data within the device.
- Decoding, or getting data out of the device into symbols that humans can understand.
Data processing objects in the computer collections are all electronic, as earlier processing equipment is in the mathematics collections or other collections in the museum. Because information technology is ubiquitous, other units of the museum also rightly collect artifacts of information technology related to specific processing tasks (e.g. robotic machine tools, typewriters, printing presses, and photographic equipment).
Approximate numbers of objects in the collection:
| Mainframe computers or components | 25 |
| Minicomputers | 10 |
| Supercomputers | 4 |
| Microcomputers | 50 |
| Other digital devices | 15 |
| Analog computers | 10 |
| Computer peripherals | 100 |
| Software | 500 |
| Electronic components | 1000 |
| Electronic calculators | 450 |
| Documentation | 150 cubic feet |
Paul's Corner 