Wave Issue 0206 2/22/02 Article 2-01

***Computer History Museum
By John Latta

Taking form in a non-descript warehouse on Moffett Field
(Mountain View), CA is the makings of one of the outstanding
museums in the US. It already contains many precious jewels over
the last 75 years of computing. Bulging at the seams with
hundreds of tons of artifacts and more coming this is a treasure
chest, in the area of computing, of the scale of the
Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. Yet, it is barely a
diamond in the rough. The only current display, which is called
"visible storage," provides just enough space to walk between
machines that have a few signs with the names of the items. This
covers only 20,000 square feet. Yet, for those, such as myself,
who have used computers for 30+ years, it afforded an incredible
vista of the progress of technology.

The museum artifacts go back to early efforts by Gordon Bell when
he was at Carnegie Mellon University in the late 1960s.
Progressively he began to collect artifacts at home as part of
his investigation into the history of computing. When Gordon
returned to Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) the company acquired
space formerly held by RCA in the Boston area. This was the
foundation for the Digital Computer Museum that opened in
September 1979. Then, in November 1984, the museum moved and
opened to the public in Museum Wharf where it shared space with
the Children's Museum and had the top two floors (60,000 square
feet). In parallel, in 1996, there was formed the Computer Museum
History Center in California. When the Computer Museum in Boston
shifted location again to the Museum of Science, with an emphasis
on exhibits, the California museum focused on the archival
collections which then a part of the Computer Museum in Boston.
Approximately 1/2 of the artifacts went to California while the
rest stayed in Boston. These artifacts arrived at Moffett Field
on February 2000. Since then the collection has continued to
expand. At the present time the Museum is in the process of
cataloging all of its possessions.

This spring the museum will launch its fund raising campaign to
secure the $100m it needs for both a permanent exhibition center
due to open in 2005 and initial operating expenses. Already they
have secured $50m. Those that have participated in the industry
have been enthusiastic supporters. This museum is a part of the
personal professional legacy of many to have contributed to one
of the great technical advancements in the 20th century.

Currently the "visible storage" is located in building 126 on
Moffett Field and will move to a "Beta" building in late summer.
This will include: 41,000 square feet of usage space of which
22,500 will be for storage and 9,000 sq feet for exhibits and
events.

All tours are on an advance request basis and can be arranged
from the
Web site.

The WAVE Report visited the Computer History Museum to see and
learn about the developments in this emerging center which seeks
"to preserve and present for posterity the artifacts and stories
of the information age." At the same time we sought to record for
the readers of the WAVE Report the richness of the collection. In
the next week we expect to put up on the WAVE Report web site
200+ images of the artifacts and storage. We will send the link
in the next WAVE Report.

I walked into building 126 at 5pm and was greeted by John Toole,
Executive Director & CEO, Dr. Michael Williams, Head Curator and
Karen Mathews, Executive VP. Dr. Williams gave me an excellent 1-
hour tour of virtually all the artifacts. It began slowly with
ENIAC because I asked too many questions. They were very generous
with their time while I took pictures to 9 pm. We are pleased to
present these to the WAVE Report readers.

www.computerhistory.org