Museums
Register
Advertisement
Difference-engine

Charles Babbage's Difference Engine at the Science Museum, London.

VL2

Virtual Library
VMoC


The Virtual Museum of Computing (VMoC)



Robin Milner (1934–2010), pioneer of automated theorem proving, programming language design, and concurrent systems, died on 20th March 2010.


This virtual museum includes an eclectic collection of World Wide Web (WWW) hyperlinks connected with the history of computing and online computer-based exhibits available both locally and around the world. It was founded on 1 June 1995, so is an example of an "old" virtual museum itself.

This museum opened on 1st June 1995. The museum receives about 200 visitors each day. Please contact Jonathan Bowen if you know of relevant online information not included here.

Older Mirror sites are available in Sweden and USA courtesy of ICOM, and also elsewhere.

Selected additions and events

See also other History of Computing conferences.


Local virtual exhibits

Items marked `Recommended' are especially recommended.

If you would like to volunteer to be a virtual curator on some aspect of the history of computing, please get in touch, preferably with a URL for the "gallery" or online exhibit which you would like included.

The museum has no online shop as yet, but feel free to try some virtual shopping.

You may also be interested in a list of books on the history of computing, available for sale from Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford.


Corporate history and overviews

More online history from other computer companies not mentioned above would be especially welcome for inclusion.


History of computing organizations

See also:


General historical information


Computer-related museums

  1. American Computer Museum, Bozeman, Montana, USA.
  2. American University Computing History Museum, Washington DC, USA.
  3. Bletchley Park Trust, near Milton Keynes, UK. "Britain's Best Kept Secret." See Computer Museum. See also Codes and Ciphers in the Second World War by Tony Sale and the British Bombe rebuild project. (Recommended)
  4. Commercial Computing Museum (Commputerseum), Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the acquisition, preservation, and exhibition of artifacts and memorabilia from the commercial use of electronic, digital computers. Includes a list of Computer History Web Sites.
  5. The Computer History Museum, Moffett Field, California, USA. (Recommended)
  6. The Computer Museum, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Started by Ken Olsen, ex-president of Digital Equipment Corporation. Part of the Museum of Science since 1999. See Computer Clubhouse.
  7. Computer Museum, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Specializes in scientific and industrial computing. Includes electronic calculators, analog computers, core memory and paper tape.
  8. Computer Museum, Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
  9. Computer Museum of America, Coleman College, La Mesa, San Diego, California, USA. See sample collections and The Evolution of Computing slide show.
  10. The DigiBarn Computer Museum, California, USA. See Xerox Alto 30th birthday. (Recommended)
  11. Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum, Paderborn, Germany. See computer museum. (In German.)
  12. The Intel Museum, Santa Clara, California, USA. Micro-chips, from the company who manufactured the first microprocessor in 1971.
  13. Microsoft Museum. (Warning: may crash Netscape browsers! ;-)
  14. Musée d'Histoire Informatique (Computer History Museum). A virtual museum on personal computers from 1978 onwards, by Philippe Dubois. See also the Pong story on the first video game. (In French.)
  15. Museu Virtual da Informática, Portugal. A virtual museum including a number of computers such as the ENIAC. (Mostly in Portuguese.)
  16. Museum of Computer Technology, Denver, Colorado, USA.
  17. Museum of HP Calculators (MoHPC). Learn about reverse Polish notation! (Recommended)
  18. Museum of Computing, Swindon, UK.
  19. Museum "Waalsdorp", The Netherlands. See computer history of the TNO Physics and Electronics Laboratory since 1927. Supercomputers, minicomuters, etc., with many photographs. (In Dutch and some English.)
  20. National Cryptologic Museum, National Security Agency, Maryland, USA. See tour of exhibits.
  21. National Museum of Computing Instruments, Pisa, Italy. Includes QuickTime VR plugin movies. (In Italian.)
  22. National Museum of Information Technology and Telecommunications, Brasília, Brazil.
  23. Personal Computer Museum, Stenungsund, Sweden. In the Guinness Book of Records because of its collection of 250 different personal computers.
  24. Rhode Island Computer Museum, USA.
  25. The Science Museum, London, UK. See Computing and Information Technology collection, the Computing Then and Now gallery information Babbage's Calculating Engines, 1832-71 and the Pilot ACE 1950. Alternatively, see the recommended Computing Then and Now page from the Treasures of the Science Museum online exhibit. See also the recently acquired Phillips Economic Hydraulic Computer, first demonstrated at the London School of Economics in November 1949.
  26. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA. Computer History, including an Information Age Tour, the collaborative Innovation Network, and oral/video history interviews with computing personalities. See also From Carbons to Computers including links to resources. (Recommended)
  27. Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose, California, USA. Includes a microelectronics exhibit.
  28. Telemuseum, Sweden. History of telecommunications.
  29. The Topeka Computing Museum, Kansas, USA.
  30. University of California at Davis Computer Science Museum, USA. Includes a timeline of computer history.
  31. York University Computer Museum, Toronto, Canada.

See also:


Online exhibits and information

The following are virtual museums or exhibitions:


Personal collections


Selected newsgroups

  • [news:alt.folklore.computers Computer folklore] (also available via the Web from Deja.com) (Recommended)
  • [news:comp.sys.apple2 Apple II]
  • Digital Equipment Corporation [news:*pdp* PDP series]:
    • [news:alt.sys.pdp8 PDP8]
    • [news:alt.sys.pdp10 PDP10]
    • [news:alt.sys.pdp11 PDP11] (see also [news:vmsnet.pdp-11 here])
  • [news:alt.sys.perq ICL PERQ]
  • [news:comp.sys.sinclair Sinclair]

See also:


Computer simulators

See also:


The future

This section includes information on the future of computing and networking.


Other links


References

This virtual museum is mentioned in the following locations:

See also Computer History and Museums links from the Google Directory. (Recommended)



This virtual museum service is brought to you by Jonathan Bowen as part of the Virtual Library museums pages (VLmp), supported by ICOM.

Last updated 18 September 2015.

Advertisement