Herman Hollerith
| Herman Hollerith | |
|---|---|
Herman Hollerith circa 1888
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| Born |
February 29, 1860 Buffalo, New York |
| Died | November 17, 1929 (aged 69) Washington, D.C. |
| Resting place | Oak Hill Cemetery |
| Education |
City College of New York (1875) Columbia University School of Mines (1879) |
| Occupation | inventor, businessperson |
| Known for | electromechanical tabulation of punched card data; IBM |
| Spouse(s) | Lucia Beverley Talcott December 3, 1865–August 4, 1944 (aged 78) (m. 1890–1929) |
| Children | 6 |
| Awards |
Elliott Cresson Medal (1890) World's Columbian Exposition, Bronze Medal (1892) National Inventors Hall of Fame (1990) Medaille d'Or, Exposition Universelle de 1889 |
Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was an American inventor who developed an electromechanical punched card tabulator to assist in summarizing information and, later, accounting. He was the founder of the Tabulating Machine Company that was amalgamated (via stock acquisition) in 1911 with three other companies to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, later renamed IBM. Hollerith is regarded as one of the seminal figures in the development of data processing. His invention of the punched card tabulating machine marks the beginning of the era of semiautomatic data processing systems, and his concept dominated that landscape for nearly a century.
Herman Hollerith was born the son of German immigrant Prof. Georg Hollerith from Großfischlingen (near Neustadt an der Weinstraße) in Buffalo, New York, where he spent his early childhood. He entered the City College of New York in 1875, graduated from the Columbia University School of Mines with an "Engineer of Mines" degree in 1879 at age 19, and in 1890 asked for (and was awarded) a Ph.D based on his development of the tabulating system. In 1882 Hollerith joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he taught mechanical engineering and conducted his first experiments with punched cards. He eventually moved to Washington, D.C., living in Georgetown, with a home on 29th Street and a business building at 31st Street and the C&O Canal, where today there is a commemorative plaque installed by IBM. He died in Washington D.C. of a heart attack.
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