Finding Aids

Arnold M. Kneitel (1923-2012) worked for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. in sales and corporate information. He worked on sales of mylar when it was introduced in 1954. The collection consists primarily of 35mm slides of displays, advertisements, and presentations on mylar, including its use in electronic equipment and, primarily in magnetic tape for information processing equipment.

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) became a giant in the field of electronic data processing by the mid-1950s. There are two photographs (one each) of the IBM 650 computer and IBM 305 computer.

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) became a giant in the field of electronic data processing by the mid-1950s after having achieved great success in the punch-card tabulating machine business in the 1930s. This is a sales film for IBM about the history of information technology.

James Cortada (1946-) is a management consultant and business historian. In this interview, Cortada discusses the collection of computing history books that he donated to Hagley Library.

Computer pioneers John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert and their associates at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering built six of the world's first electronic digital computers between 1943 and 1951. This collection consists of undated black and white photographs and slides; twelve of the eighteen slides are duplicates of the photographs. Two of the images are engineering drawings (EDVAC's block diagram and control panel) and the rest are images of the EDVAC and MSAC computers.

The Sperry Corporation's Aerospace Division traces its origins to Engineering Research Associates (ERA), a St. Paul, Minnesota firm founded by William Norris (1911-2006) and Howard Engstrom (1902-1962). In 1952 ERA merged with Remington Rand, Inc., where it became part of its Eckert-Mauchly Division. In 1960, five years after the Sperry-Remington Rand merger, it was renamed the Military Division, and in 1975 it became Sperry Rand's Aerospace Division. These photographs show details of identified laboratory testing of computer components.

The Sperry Corporation was an electronics company and the UNIVAC Division manufactured the first commercial digital computer. The Sperry UNIVAC division has its origins in the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC), founded in 1946 by J. Presper Eckert (1919-1995) and John W. Mauchly (1907-1980). In 1950, Eckert and Mauchly sold their firm to Remington Rand, Inc, a major manufacturer of business machines, who continued development of the UNIVAC system. The collection documents predecessor organizations to the Sperry Corporation, including the Remington Typewriter Company, the Rand Kardex Company, and the Sperry Gyroscope Company; the formation of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation; the development of the UNIVAC brand under Remington Rand, Inc.; Philadelphia and St. Paul branches of the UNIVAC division; the UNIVAC manufacturing plant in Bristol, Tennessee; and Sperry divisions outside of UNIVAC, including Sperry Gyroscope Flight and Defense Systems, and Remington Rand office equipment.