An occasional letter on collections

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Posted-Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 15:13:09 -0500
Date: 18 Nov 94 11:02:13 EDT
From: "Gwen Bell" <BELL () tcm org>
Subject: An occasional letter on collections
To: "farber" <farber () central cis upenn edu>


An Occasional Letter on the Historical Collection at The Computer
Museum;  No. 1, Nov. 1994


> From Gwen Bell, Director Historical Collection and Brian Wallace,
Manager Historical Collection


ABOUT THIS LETTER


This occasional email letter will be sent to anyone interested in
collecting and preserving artifacts, documentation, photographs,
films, and other records relating to the history of the technology of
computing. Please feel free to forward it and send us the email
addresses of anyone that you think might like to receive the
letter.


After reading through this issue, if you would like TO CONTINUE TO
REEIVE the newsletter, please let us know by REPLYING to this email.
Please feel free to forward the newsletter and send along email
addresses of anyone you think might be interested in itl


While the letter will primarily contain news of the collection from
The Computer Museum, we hope that we will involve you with
collecting. Write to us about collecting activities elsewhere and to
identify materials to be saved. We hope to include news from "the
field."


This letter is not about computer history or anecdotes per se, but
about saving the historical record. We need you to help us assess and
acquire items for the collection.


PROLOG: THE COMPUTER MUSEUMS COLLECTIONS GUIDELINES


The Museum's collections  focus on the technology of computing,
especially computers themselves.
        *The collection of artifacts includes complete computers,
partial machines, examples of particular technological components,
i.e., memories, and some software (see below).
        *The document collection consists of technical manuals,
notebooks, reports, and "near print" materials. For the most part,
this collection does not include indexed materials accessible from
other sources.
        *The photograph collection features computers and computing
and  some of the main people associated with the artifact collection.
        *The film and video collection includes vintage commercial
and academic footage, lectures, news items, computer animation,
screen dumps, and advertisements.
        *The ephemera collection is an assortment of t-shirts, mugs,
signs, pins, and various icons evocative of past eras and
technologies.
        *The library has books that are mostly out-of-date, therefore
a record of the approach to technology at their time.
        *Software in the collection is either in a complete
maintainable form with a computer that could run, (Superpaint with
the Xerox-PARC machine on which it was written including a NOVA), or
that has value as an icon (Dan Bricklin's original "Visicalc" disk).
Software, such as operating systems, is kept as documentation in the
document collection. All language documentation is sent to the Jean
Sammet collection at the Babbage Institute.


CRITERIA FOR THE COLLECTION
        *THE FIRST: Was this the first of its kind or  the first of
an important subgroup?
        *THE CLASSIC: Did this technology become the de facto
standard for a period of time?  Was this a model that many followed?
        *A TECHNOLOGICAL CURIOSITY: Did this take an approach that
led to a dead end? Did it try to extend the life of a technology past
its time? Was it the product of incredible effort and research that
lead to naught? The technological dead ends are an important part of
the story, illustrating that history is not a matter of predictable
straightforward progress.
        *A PART OF A LARGER PICTURE: Was this the work of a person or
company represented by firsts and classics? Does this show a breadth
of diversity in approach in a particular period?
        *TOO EARLY TO TELL: If in doubt, and it is possible, age the
material to make a decision at a later time. With the rapid move of
technology, it is better to collect some questionable items and age
them than regret premature disposal.


NEWS BRIEFS OF THE COLLECTION
        *The Networked Planet Exhibit opens November 12.*  The
exhibit includes a 150- year time line of technologies, people and
events leading to the networking of the planet. Some artifacts on
display include a box from the Boston telegraphic fire alarm system
(1852), the first pocket-size radio, made by Regency Electronics
(1954), and an original Arpanet IMP from the Bolt Beranek and Newman
node (1970).


        *Paul Pierce, an engineer with Intel in Portland and
collector of computer architecture, spent several days of his
sabbatical at the Museum helping us sort out a collection of Harvard
Mark IV documents, drawings and photographs donated by  John W. Roche
and materials from Steve Wozniak's storage.   The Wozniak materials
were saved by Richard Dohery, a friend of Steve's, for the Museum
(versus going into a dump truck). The collection includes a wide
variety of development tools that Woz used at the time of the Apple
II.


THE WANTED LIST
        *A Carterphone, the mid-1960s device that broke AT&T's
monopoly for supplying "Data-phones."


WRITE TO US
        Give us your comments and insights and leads! Please return
email if you wish to remain on the mailing list.


The next letters will include descriptions of new acquisitions and
the work of volunteer Simpson Garfinkel building a digitized database
of photographs.


Thank you for helping us preserve the history of computing,


Gwen and Brian