Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Institute for Advanced Study Computer Project Records

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0401
Creators:
Princeton University. Institute for Advanced Study Computer Project
Dates:
1950-1957.
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.7 Cubic feet
3 boxes
Repository:
Collection documents the Electronic Computer Project, 1950-1957 at the Institute for Advanced Study. The goal of the project was to build a computer that would be a general-purpose postwar tool for various branches of scientific research.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
The collection includes published reports of the staff of the Electronic Computer Project, monthly progress reports, and reports by individual staff members (sometimes in draft form) on particular problems or pieces of equipment. Numerous drawings of computer components are also included, together with 10 glass photo slides in color of equipment and two slides of personnel (unidentified). A special "computer issue" of Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers (published October, 1953) contains 41 papers on technical aspects of computers.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
This material was generated by participants in the IAS Computer Project, 1950-1957. The Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, NJ has long been a center of scholarly work in many disciplines of science by noted researchers (e.g. Albert Einstein). The computer project was initiated there in 1946 by John Von Neumann, a mathematician who had been working on ballistics computations during World War II. He used the first version of the Princeton computer to calculate the results of the thermonuclear reaction of the first H bomb in 1950. In the late 1950s, after Von Neumann's death, the project was terminated. A brief summary of the project and Von Neumann's contribution is found in Chapter 5 of Who Got Einstein's Office? by Edward Regis (Addison Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., 1987.)

Administration

Author
Don Darroch
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Collection donated by Leon D. Harmon, March 23, 1982.
Custodial History
Transferred to the Archives Center from the Division of Computer, Information & Society (now Division of Medicine and Science) on January 22, 1991.
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Don Darroch, Archives Center volunteer.

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation
Institute for Advanced Study Computer Project Records, 1950-1957, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Computer programming Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Computer science Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Journals (accounts) Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Drawings -- 1950-1960 Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Princeton (N. J.) Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
New Jersey Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Reports Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
von Neumann, John Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Computers, Information and Society Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Archives Center, National Museum of American History
P.O. Box 37012
Suite 1100, MRC 601
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
archivescenter@si.edu