The Computer Museum, Boston, Massachusetts

Abstract

Computers have been prime objects for exhibition ever since their invention. Charles Babbage exhibited his Difference Engine at the 1851 London Crystal Palace Exposition, hoping to gain support for further developments and broad exposure and honor for his machine designs. Four years later, Georg Scheutz and his son Edvard showed their calculating machine at the Universal Exposition in Paris. They, too, hoped to gain recognition and sell their machine.' Electronic computers have been proudly exhibited for forty years, some as corporate icons for advertising purposes: since 1948 IBM has displayed its latest, most powerful computers behind plate glass on the ground floor of its New York office building.2 Most exhibits focus on how computers work: these are found in science centers across the country. Exhibits of history are rarer. IBM has sponsored several, including the classic A Computer Perspective, designed by Charles and Ray Eames.3 The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History has had a exhibit almost since its founding in the early 1960s. Though exhibits on the early days of computers have addressed history with some success, none has yet dealt successfully with the complexity of the computer revolution. There are several major reasons for this. The first is the intrinsic difficulty of displaying electronic devices. Computers are the ultimate black boxes. Their mecha-