Finding Aids

The IBM Technical History Project was begun in 1980 following the suggestion that books be written about IBM's technical history. The books that were subsequently written were based, in part, on 361 oral history interviews. This collection contains the interviews bound in eight volumes.

The collection consists of copies of trial records collected by Seymour C. Yuter (dates unknown), a patent attorney for Technitrol, Inc. They include documents from the interlocking suits of Technitrol v. Control Data Corp., Technitrol v. Sperry Rand, and Technitrol v. U.S.A., which came to trial between the late 1950s and the mid 1970s. The principal point at issue was, who was the inventor of the magnetic storage drum. The records provide a fascinating picture of the early history of the computer industry and trace the role played by the military in the years immediately after World War II.

Engineering Research Associates (ERA) origins can be traced to the classified World War II-era Navy project to break the German secret codes by using electronic data processing. After the war, ERA became a private sector company that did pioneering work in computer development. In 1952, it was purchased by Remington Rand. The records include the correspondence of ERA's founding engineers including William Norris and Arnold Cohen. Also included is business and technical correspondence, legal records, patents, and oral histories.

UNITE, Inc. stands for Unisys Information Technology Exchange, a not-for-profit corporation, where members share information about Unisys and the use and development of information technology. The predescessor, UNIVAC Scientific Exchange (USE) was formed in 1955, consisting of UNIVAC 1103A computer users (Boeing Airplane Company, Holloman Air Force Base, Lockheed Missile Systems Division and Ramo-Woolridge Corporation) and Sperry-UNIVAC representatives. Their records document the evolving relationship between USE, Inc. and Sperry-UNIVAC including the history of software development through problem issues reported and improvements, response to user demands, and customer expectations.