Object Details
- IBM
- Harvard University
- Description
- This is a small part of one of the first machines that could be programmed to carry out calculations automatically. Initially designed to solve scientific problems, it was used during World War II to carry out computations for the United States Navy. It was a one-of-a-kind machine. After the war, IBM would greatly expand its activity in computing to include electronic computers. Harvard began one of the first degree programs in computer science. People who had worked on the Mark I, such as Grace Murray Hopper, also went to work for other early computer manufacturers. More generally, many scholars and ordinary people first learned about "giant brains," as early computers were called, through workshops and press releases of the Harvard Computation Laboratory.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of President and Fellows of Harvard University
- 1944
- ID Number
- MA.323579
- accession number
- 248831
- catalog number
- 323579
- Object Name
- computer component
- electromechanical computer component
- Other Terms
- electromechanical computer component; computer component; Control Panel
- Measurements
- overall: 213 cm x 76 cm x 13 cm; 83 7/8 in x 29 15/16 in x 5 1/8 in
- place made
- United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge, Harvard University
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Computers & Business Machines
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Record ID
- nmah_904257
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a7-74a3-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
