BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: My Computing Devices

DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: My Computing Devices:

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Description of Pictures: My Computing Devices
August 28, 2019 – February 2020
My Computing Devices showcases the complex story of Americans’ ownership and use of computers, and challenges visitors to examine their own personal relationships with devices. A range of mechanical and electronic objects from the museum’s collections will be on view; some were inventions of little practical use, others were the tools of scientists, business people, engineers and consumers; and others were toys, often designed by and for educators.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. COMPUT_190904_001.JPG: My Computing Device Check your pocket. Check your purse. Check your hand. Chances are, you're carrying a computing device. Today large numbers of Americans have and use cell phones capable of a wide variety of computations. Handheld calculators, laptop computers, and personally owned gaming devices abound. Your computing device is the result of centuries of innovation and experimentation by inventors and users alike. The devices they proposed, operated, and owned were personal to them -- a tangible symbol of their ideas, their expertise, and their unique needs. These are a handful of their computing devices.
2. COMPUT_190904_005.JPG: Inventing Like an American
3. COMPUT_190904_011.JPG: Ramón Verea's calculating machine patent model, 1878 Ramón Verea of New York City invented this machine, which could multiply two numbers together directly. He is better remembered for starting one of the first Spanish-language newspapers in New York.
4. COMPUT_190904_013.JPG: Replica of Dorr E. Felt's Comptometer, 1885 Dorr E. Felt of Chicago constructed a rough model of an adding machine using a macaroni box for a frame and corks for keys. Felt's Comptometer, steadily improved over the decades, became a successful commercial product sold to businesses and labs.
5. COMPUT_190904_015.JPG: Thomas Hill's arithmometer patent model, 1857 Thomas Hill, a minister in Waltham, Massachusetts, patented this adding machine -- one of the first to have keys. Hill had more influence as a textbook author, a minister, and president of Harvard University.
6. COMPUT_190904_018.JPG: Inventing Like An American In the mid-1800s, a few dozen Americans patented devices for arithmetic. They submitted models of their devices to the U.S. Patent Office, as a matter of pride in expressing their individual ideas and to meet a need. Some of these models survive in Smithsonian collections. A Spanish-born American inventor, Ramón Verea, boasted that getting a U.S. patent showed he could "invent like an American." Ramón Verea, 1890
7. COMPUT_190904_024.JPG: Tools for the Laboratory Mathematicians and scientists used instruments to assist in their calculations. To use these devices meant their keepers had a special ability and profession. From the late 1800s, paid operators of these machines -- many of whom were women -- were called "computers."
8. COMPUT_190904_028.JPG: Mental Calculation From the 1800s, Americans increasingly used numbers to make calculations in their heads that they used to describe the world around them. Schoolchildren learned to do basic arithmetic with paper and pencil. Objects such as slates, first found in the classroom, came to be owned by individuals.
9. COMPUT_190904_031.JPG: Slate with numeral frame, around 1890 Paper was expensive in the 1800s. As the graphic from a textbook cover suggests, some students learned to calculate at the blackboard. Others used slates. The beads at the top of this personal slate helped with counting and simple arithmetic.
10. COMPUT_190904_033.JPG: Grandma's Arithmetical Game, around 1915
11. COMPUT_190904_034.JPG: F. A. P. Barnard's arithmometer, 1867 F. A. P. Barnard, president of Columbia University, purchased this machine on a visit to Paris for use in his office and later gave it to Columbia's astronomical observatory.
12. COMPUT_190904_037.JPG: R. C. Archibald's slide rule, 1900–1908 From the 1890s, scientists and engineers routinely owned slide rules and used them for basic arithmetic. Students wore them on their belts or carried them in their pockets as a symbol of technical expertise. Canadian-born mathematician R. C. Archibald kept this slide rule during his long career at Brown University.
13. COMPUT_190904_040.JPG: Engineer Catherine Eiden using a slide rule to make calculations, 1960s
14. COMPUT_190904_042.JPG: Aids for Commerce and Consumers Beginning in the 1880s, business and government employees across the nation calculated with machines. Some operators received special training from vendors, while others learned on the job. Especially from the 1920s, consumers also purchased relatively inexpensive, portable adding machines.
15. COMPUT_190904_044.JPG: Addometer advertisement, 1947
16. COMPUT_190904_046.JPG: Kim Dong Kuen's abacus, around 1900 Kim Dong Kuen and his wife, early Korean settlers in Hawaiʻi, owned this abacus of Chinese design. The abacus was an ancient computing device that, by the 1800s, was widely used in much of Asia, including Russia.
17. COMPUT_190904_049.JPG: Nannie Burroughs's cash register, around 1905 From 1909 until her death in 1961, Nannie Burroughs was the president of a business college for African American students in Washington, D.C. This cash register, marked with her name, was used to teach students at the school.
18. COMPUT_190904_058.JPG: Joseph Hirshhorn's Addometer, around 1927 Businessman Joseph Hirshhorn, who would give his art collection to the Smithsonian Institution, owned one of the first examples of this adding machine. Sales of the instrument continued into the mid-1900s, as the advertisement attests. Judy Wallace's pocket counter, around 1975 Judy Wallace used this pocket calculator to tally her spending as she shopped. She received the simple adding machine as an advertisement from Gino's, a fast-food restaurant in Maryland.
19. COMPUT_190904_064.JPG: Joseph Hirshhorn, 1965
20. COMPUT_190904_066.JPG: Nannie Helen Burroughs, 1909
21. COMPUT_190904_071.JPG: Electronic World
22. COMPUT_190904_072.JPG: Electronic Inventions In the 1900s, groups of inventive people often worked together in private and government laboratories to develop both methods of programming and electronic circuitry. But the ways that they would use these devices, and the skills that they gained to use them, shaped their personal identity and sometimes took a playful turn.
23. COMPUT_190904_073.JPG: Electronic Inventions Grace Murray Hopper, 1960 Compiling routine A-0, early 1950s Grace Hopper and her colleagues at Remington-Rand UNIVAC in Philadelphia developed compilers, methods that made it easier to program mainframe computers. Not only were their ideas a personal expression of how they could speed data processing, but compilers would over time find use in millions of individual computing devices.
24. COMPUT_190904_076.JPG: Prototype for Newton Personal Digital Assistant, around 1990 This is a test model for the Newton, a handheld device designed to assist in a range of personal tasks. Rodney Sol Furmanski, a mechanical engineer by training, used this prototype to test the Newton operating system.
25. COMPUT_190904_078.JPG: Drawing from compiling routine, early 1950s
26. COMPUT_190904_080.JPG: Jack Kilby with prototype electronic calculator and microchips, around 1987
27. COMPUT_190904_085.JPG: Prototype electronic calculator, 1967 A Texas Instruments team in Dallas, Texas, led by Jack Kilby built this prototype. TI first sold chips to other handheld calculator manufacturers and then began selling calculators itself. These would become the personal calculating device of countless students and professionals, selling in the tens of millions.
28. COMPUT_190904_088.JPG: Forrest M. Mims's copy of BASIC for the Altair, around 1975 Journalist and early Altair microcomputer owner Forrest M. Mims III owned this BASIC tape. During the 1970s, microcomputers began to sell to individuals, many of whom used a programming language called BASIC. BASIC for the Altair was one of the first products of Micro-Soft (now Microsoft), whose early employees are shown in the photograph.
29. COMPUT_190904_094.JPG: Staff of Micro-Soft, 1978
30. COMPUT_190904_099.JPG: Laboratory Computers Women at the console of a Ferranti Mark I*, around 1953
31. COMPUT_190904_100.JPG: Ferranti Mark I* Williams tube, 1951 The Ferranti Mark I* was one of the first commercial computers built in Great Britain. British schoolmaster Christopher Strachey developed a program that allowed him to play checkers on the computer and arranged for the screen to look like a checkerboard.
32. COMPUT_190904_103.JPG: Laboratory Computers Early electronic computers were large and expensive. They required an entire staff of operators, and were too costly for personal use. Nonetheless, a few individualistic programmers designed playful demonstrations in which computers attempted games like chess and tic-tac-toe.
33. COMPUT_190904_114.JPG: An Wang with microcomputers, around 1976
34. COMPUT_190904_116.JPG: Michael Boman's WorkSlate tablet computer, 1984 The California firm of Convergent Technologies introduced this portable computer in 1983. It was primarily designed to assist businesspeople with spreadsheets, but it also served as a calculator, telephone, speakerphone, tape recorder, and alarm.
35. COMPUT_190904_120.JPG: The Hilke Family's Commodore 64, 1982 Museum educator D. D. Hilke used this personal computer while writing her dissertation. Her sons used it for science fair projects. The same machine could also be used for playing games and doing home accounting. A television set served as the monitor.
36. COMPUT_190904_122.JPG: PANAMAC agent set, 1964 Making airline reservations was one of the first commercial applications of linked terminals. IBM developed a system for Pan American that included this terminal. Some of the first people to regularly use a computer for customer service were agents of Pan American Airlines, who used systems like this one to book airline tickets.
37. COMPUT_190904_125.JPG: Xerox Star Information System, 1981 In 1981 Xerox began to sell systems of linked microprocessors for office use. These had screens with icons, as well as applications ranging from text entry to graphics to information retrieval to electronic mail to mathematical equation solving. Less expensive machines made by other vendors soon dominated the market.
38. COMPUT_190904_131.JPG: Personal Calculators The introduction of microchips, combined with rapid price decreases, made handheld electronic calculators possible. They replaced the slide rule, many printed tables of numbers, adding machines, and most desktop electronic calculators. Portability and affordability made the calculators personal devices, but their capabilities were often limited.
39. COMPUT_190904_133.JPG: Personal Calculators
40. COMPUT_190904_137.JPG: Ronald E. Zupko's HP-35 electronic calculator, 1972 Ronald E. Zupko, a historian of weights and measures, used this HP-35. It was the first handheld electronic calculator to display all the functions represented on a slide rule.
41. COMPUT_190904_139.JPG: SR-10 electronic calculator, 1972 By the end of 1972, Texas Instruments also sold an electronic calculator suited to scientists and engineers. It was called the "SR" because it also performed the functions of a slide rule.
42. COMPUT_190904_142.JPG: Pulsar calculator wristwatch, 1976 By the mid-1970s, electronic calculators were combined with other electronic devices to produce instruments like this wristwatch, which could be worn on the person.
43. COMPUT_190904_145.JPG: An Wang's LOCI-2 electronic calculator, 1965–1968 An Wang's Massachusetts firm, Wang Laboratories, claimed that this programmable instrument, which evaluated useful scientific functions, opened "new vistas to your personal computing." It sold for several thousand dollars.
44. COMPUT_190904_150.JPG: Aids for Business and Government Minicomputers, desktop calculators, and then microcomputers and laptops became standard in workplaces across the nation. Calculators and inexpensive computers also helped individuals track their money.
45. COMPUT_190904_153.JPG: IBM SCAMP, 1973 Engineers at the IBM Scientific Center in Palo Alto, California, designed this early portable computer for demonstrations of the programming language APL.
46. COMPUT_190904_157.JPG: National Semiconductor 103A electronic calculator, 1978–1981 Called the "checkbook balancer," this calculator was specifically designed to help bank customers manage checking accounts. The attached sleeve could hold a checkbook and pen alongside the calculator.
47. COMPUT_190904_160.JPG: Paul Ceruzzi's TRS-80 Model 100, around 1983 In order to track home finances and mortgage payments, Smithsonian curator Paul Ceruzzi constructed elaborate spreadsheets for this compact computer.
48. COMPUT_190904_163.JPG: Simon, 1978 After seeing the arcade version of Touch Me, Ralph Baer decided he could improve upon the game. He changed the notes to the four notes sounded by a bugle, designed the game to be portable, and named it for the game "Simon Says." Simon was an instant success.
49. COMPUT_190904_165.JPG: Atari Touch Me, 1978 This is the handheld version of an arcade game first released in 1974. The device produced a series of sounds that the player repeated by pushing corresponding buttons. The number of tones in the sequence increased after each answer.
50. COMPUT_190904_168.JPG: Turtle Bridge electronic game, around 1982 Nintendo published a series of handheld electronic games called Game & Watch; this is one of them. A player used a line of five virtual turtles (each of which may move) as stepping stones to transfer baggage from one side of a river to the other. Once a package reached a partner on the other side, the player returned to the home bank to fetch the next package. Little Professor calculator, around 1978 This colorful electronic calculator, made by Texas Instruments, shows arithmetic problems. A correct answer prompts another problem on the eight-digit display. An error delivers the message "EEE."
51. COMPUT_190904_171.JPG: Educational software for the Commodore 64, around 1984 With appropriate software, Commodore 64 users could study subjects ranging from reading to typing to astronomy.
52. COMPUT_190904_174.JPG: Xerox Star in use, around 1981
53. COMPUT_190904_175.JPG: A Tool and Toy for the Home From the mid-1970s, hobbyists purchased microcomputers for home use. By the early 1980s, these were sufficiently reliable and inexpensive to attract large numbers of consumers. These computers could not only calculate but served a wide array of other purposes.
54. COMPUT_190904_177.JPG: Margaret Fox's SEAC game cartridge, around 1960 Margaret Fox kept this game cartridge for the SEAC computer. The machine was programmed to compute prime numbers, but also to play tic-tac-toe and generate musical selections. SEAC, built at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., in the 1950s, carried out calculations for military and scientific use. Demonstrations for visitors took a lighter tone.
55. COMPUT_190904_189.JPG: Electronic Games Some devices were designed entirely for personal entertainment.
56. COMPUT_190904_194.JPG: Ralph Baer, 2003
57. COMPUT_190904_203.JPG: My Computing Device
58. COMPUT_190904_206.JPG: Laura Warner's iPad, 2011 Laura Warner used this first generation iPad as a student at the University of Kansas. She found it particularly convenient in studying readings teachers posted online. Warner also had a laptop computer for use in her room. Harold Dorwin's Philips Velo 1, 1997 Harold Dorwin, who operated a photography business, could use this device for calculation and to run word processing and database management programs. It also sent faxes and recorded voice memos; it could be used to surf the Web and linked to a larger computer at home.
59. COMPUT_190904_213.JPG: Networking and Communication From the 1960s, engineers found ways to link computers. Initially, this involved introducing intermediate computers. Later, terminals might be wired to a common large computer. It soon became possible to link desktop and then mobile devices. Thus networking expanded from the workplace to the personal realm.
60. COMPUT_190904_215.JPG: A Networked World Once the visions of an elite few designed for a single purpose, linked computing devices with multiple functions are now widely owned and used.
61. COMPUT_190904_220.JPG: Vinton Cerf, 2013
62. COMPUT_190904_228.JPG: Vint Cerf's Google Glass, 2013 More recent personal computing devices include the Google Glass, which could be worn like a pair of glasses. Wearers could communicate with the internet via touch and voice commands. The glasses displayed information by a screen mounted above one eye or by sound. A camera also was included.
63. COMPUT_190904_249.JPG: My computing device, 1972
64. COMPUT_190904_250.JPG: My computing device, 2018
65. COMPUT_190904_254.JPG: My computing device, around 1840
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