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Computer History
There are many great resources online that have different approaches to the history of the computer that we use today. Some of these online resources use a time-line based approach, while others go for the illustrated and interactive approach. Because of the importance of computing in our everyday lives there are many off-line resources for the computing history, including museums built around the development of the computer. Some of these museums have tools and information online as well. There are also books and other material on the subject. Computer History – Online Resources Depending on what type of information you’re looking for on the history of computing, you can find many approaches online. For one, there a timeline of milestones in history of the computer (also titled “Triumph of the Nerds”), located at pbs.org/nerds/timeline/. There’s a similar timeline based resource at islandnet.com/~kpolsson/comphist/, but this resource explains more current developments in greater detail. Another great source has text based as well as oral information. The resource at Charles Babbage Institute holds one of the world's largest collections of research-grade oral history interviews relating to the history of computers, software, and networking. Some of these interviews are online at cbi.umn.edu. Then there’s the Computer History Association of California (CHAC), which has further links to hundreds of special and generic resources on computer related history. The association has a homepage located at chac.org. If you need pictures of the early computers and inventors, there are some located at crowl.org/Lawrence/history/. Computer History – Offline Resources Some of the great preservers of information are museums. The one for computer history, called Computer History Museum, established in 1996, is aptly located in Silicon Valley, California (1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043). According to the Museum, it is the home to one of the largest collections of computing artifacts in the world, with over 4,000 artifacts, 10,000 images, 4,000 linear feet of cataloged documentation and gigabytes of software. The museum’s homepage is located at computerhistory.org. Much of the information on computers are located at generic Science-related museums around the world. There are science museums around the U.S., including: Museum of Science at Boston (Science Park, Boston, MA 02114) Science Museum of Minnesota (120 West Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, Minnesota 55102) The Exploratorium at San Francisco (3601 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA 94123) Science Museum of Virginia (2500 West Broad Street, Richmond, Va.) There are also some good books on the subject, including: Computer: A History of the Information Machine by Martin Campbell-Kelly, William Aspray A History of Modern Computing by Paul E. Ceruzzi The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacus to the Quantum Computer by Georges Ifrah
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