The Computer Museum, Boston
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| Established | 1979 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 2000 |
| Location |
Museum Wharf Boston, Massachusetts |
| Coordinates | 42°21′07″N 71°03′00″W / 42.351845°N 71.04989°W |
| Type | Computer museum |
The Computer Museum was a Boston, Massachusetts, museum that opened in 1979 and operated in three different locations until 1999. It was once referred to as TCM and is sometimes called the Boston Computer Museum.
The Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Museum Project began in 1975 with a display of circuit and memory hardware in a converted lobby closet of DEC's Main (Mill) Building 12 in Maynard, Massachusetts. In September 1979, with the assistance of Digital Equipment Corporation, Gordon and Gwen Bell founded the Digital Computer Museum in a former RCA building in Marlboro, Massachusetts. Though entirely funded by DEC and housed within a corporate facility, from its inception the Museum's activities were ecumenical, with an industry-wide, international preservation mission.
In spring 1982, the Museum received non-profit charitable foundation status from the Internal Revenue Service. In Fall 1983, the Computer Museum, which had dropped "Digital" from its title, decided to relocate to Museum Wharf in downtown Boston, sharing a renovated wool warehouse with Boston Children's Museum. Oliver Strimpel, recruited from the Science Museum in London, was appointed to develop a major exhibit on computer graphics and image processing, later being appointed Executive Director in 1990.
On November 13, 1984, the Museum officially re-opened to the public at its new 53,00 square foot location. The initial set of exhibits featured the pioneering Whirlwind Computer, the SAGE computer room, an evolutionary series of computers built by Seymour Cray, and a 20-year timeline of computing developments that included many artifacts collected by Gordon Bell. Also among the opening exhibits was a permanent gallery devoted to the history, technology, and applications of digital imaging entitled The Computer and the Image.
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