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Grace Murray Hopper Collection

National Museum of American History

Object Details

Creator
Hopper, Grace Murray, 1906-1992
Former owner
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Physical Sciences
Names
Remington Rand.
Occupation
Computer programmers
Topic
Computers
Computer programming
Computers and women
Mathematicians
Systems engineering
Univac computer
Provenance
Grace Murray Hopper donated her materials to the National Museum of American History, Section of Mathematics in 1967 and 1968. The majority of the collection was donated through the Museum's Computer Oral History Project in 1972.
Creator
Hopper, Grace Murray, 1906-1992
See more items in
Grace Murray Hopper Collection
Summary
Papers and photographs of Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) computer and Naval pioneer.
Accruals
3 reels of film titled "Standardization of Computer Languages, Some Implications for the U.S. Navy," 1968, were added to the collection in May 2022. The films were transferred from the Division of Medicine and Science to the Archives Center. The immediate source of acquisition is unknown. An accession number was not assigned by the division. 3 boxes of materials (1 cubic foot) was transferred from the Division of Medicine and Science to the Archives Center in October 2022. The immediate source of acquistion is Grace Murray Hopper, presumably in 1984. An accession number was not assigned by the division.
Biographical / Historical
Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) obtained her Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University in 1934. She was an associate professor of mathematics at Vassar College when she joined the Women's Reserve of the United States Navy, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) in 1944 and was assigned to the computing project at Harvard University. She served under Commander Howard H. Aiken as a Wave until 1946, and remained at Harvard's Computation Laboratory as a research fellow until 1949. In that year she joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation as a senior mathematician. When Eckert-Mauchly became a division of Remington Rand, Hopper remained as senior programmer, a title she retained until 1959. Subsequently, she served as systems engineer and director of automatic programming development (1959-1964) and staff scientist in systems programming (1964-1971) for the UNIVAC division of Sperry Rand Corporation. Hopper retired from UNIVAC in 1972, having returned to active service in the U.S. Navy from which she eventually retired with the rank of Rear Admiral. In 2016, President Obama posthumously awarded Rear Adm. Hopper the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor, awarded to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interest of the U.S. for her remarkable influence on the field of computer science.
Extent
2.5 Cubic feet (9 boxes, 1 map-folder)
Date
1944-1967
Custodial History
Collection transferred from the Division of Physical Sciences (now Division of Medicine and Science) to the Archives Center, February 6, 1989.
Archival Repository
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Identifier
NMAH.AC.0324
Type
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Articles
Photographs
16mm films
Technical notes
Videotapes
Citation
Grace Murray Hopper Collection, 1944-1965, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Arrangement
The collection is divided into twelve series. Series 1: Technical Documents, 1944-1949 Series 2: Photographs of Mark II, 1948 Series 3: Photographs at Harvard, 1944-1945 Series 4: Reports and Articles, 1946-1948 Series 5: Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, 1949-1965 Series 6: Compiling Routines, 1952-1954 Series 7: Press Clippings, 1944-1953 Series 8: Periodicals and Brochures, 1950-1953 Series 9: Humor file, 1944-1953 Series 10: Machine Tape, undated Series 11: Audiovisual Materials, undated Series 12: Addenda, 1949-1967
Processing Information
Collection processed by Don Darroch, 1990. Addenda processed by Alison Oswald, archivist, 2022.
Rights
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.
Genre/Form
Articles -- 20th century
Photographs -- 20th century
16mm films
Technical notes
Videotapes
Scope and Contents
The material includes technical notes, operating instructions and descriptions relating to projects which Hopper participated in at Harvard during and after World War II and later in the private sector. These projects involved the creation of the Navy's Mark I, II and III "mechanical calculators" (the fore runners of today's computers) and the UNIVAC and ENIAC civilian models. The photographs document both equipment and Hopper with her colleagues at work and on social occasions. There are numerous published articles and memoranda by Hopper and others on various technical aspects of computers. Clippings of newspaper and magazine articles relating to computers and their development are also included, as well as periodicals and brochures. A "humor file" contains jokes and anecdotes collected by Hopper. Much of the material is annotated by Hopper, primarily through notations on 3 x 5 white slips of paper. Some of the annotations by Elizabeth Luebbert, who served as a summer research assistant in the Museum's Computer History Project.
Restrictions
Collection is open for research.
Related Materials
Materials at the Archives Center Computer Oral History Collection (AC0196) This collection contains five oral history interviews with Grace Murray Hopper conducted on: July 1, 1968; November 1, 1968; January 7, 1969; February 4, 1969; and July 5, 1972.
Related link
Record ID
ebl-1562729477047-1562729477068-0
Metadata Usage
CC0
GUID
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8a1e4e5a0-fbd1-4ece-ad0c-dd83803a6168

In the Collection

Pages

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  • Machine Can Calculate and Remember, The Washington Post, Wednesday, 28 January 1948 (AP) IBM SSEC.

  • PSALM TO THE FAREWELL STATE (Author Unknown, carbon copy on tissue) "The government is my shepherd, I need not work."... (3 copies).

  • Volume XVII, No. 2, February, 1953 "The Science of Industry" by General Douglas MacArthur (pages 4-6). Chairman of the Board, Remington Rand, Inc.

  • Table of Computers

  • UNIVAC Programming Form No. 1-1101 (F), Copyright 1950 EMCC; a subsidiary of Remington Rand, Inc.

  • (53) A rest stop on the trip (same house as above picture) L to R: Hopper at door of bus accepting liquid refreshment from Bissell by driver's seat

  • List and description of computers known to Cmdr. Hopper as of 1949-1950

  • Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation List of Personnel

  • (41) Aiken chopping wood for a fire

  • Addendum, The Barber-Colman Computer: Properties as of September 22, 1949,

  • Stevens, Paul "Fabulous Robot Brain Now Works for Navy" Herald (handwritten) Boston Herald Monday 7 August 1944 picture: Aiken w/calculator.

  • Bugs, by Grace Hopper July 26-28: half sheet of unlined three-hole paper Table worm, July 27; Kitchie Boo Boo Bug -He who goes around loosening relays. July 26; NRL Bug -He who sends wrong data. July 28; He who brings good data (also two xerox copies of same).

  • (23) 8 January 1948 Test Panels A and B

  • (16) Parts of the Mark I. Cam, Relay, and Counter, early 1944.

  • Diploma of Dr. Grace M. Hopper, "Has graduated with full honors from "Logical Blocks' And is hereby award the degree 'In Univacology'", date 1949 when join Eckert-Mauchly computer Corp., according to Grace Hopper.

  • (27) Lt. Hopper standing behind a car parked near Cruft Lab, 1945 to 1947 (?)

  • Exhibit C, The Education of a Computer"

  • Bell Laboratories Record, Volume XXXI Number 4

  • Organization Chart A Family Tree of Computers Influences by Grace Hopper

  • (10) 8 January 1948 Control Panel: detail showing read-out lights

  • (59) Working on the plugging of the Mark II, 1946. L to R: Hourihan, Huntsberger, Roche, Hawkins

  • (37) Cam Unit: rear view showing arc suppression and drive motor

  • (49) Preparing to board the bus at Harvard L to R: Aiken, Bloch, Arnold, Campbell, Lt. from Dahlgren, Calvin, Bissell

  • The A-2 Compiler by Dr. Grace Murray Hopper, 29 October 1953: 3 pages plus flowchart "Compiler Method of Problem Solution".

  • Report No. 25, Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

  • The BINAC: A Product of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation.

  • Britain's First Mathematical Engine, photo, Christian Science Monitor, Thursday, 9 January 1947; Richard Babbage and Aiken and piece of difference engine.

  • (75) Wheatland (?) looking through glass shelves with calculating machines to Campbell and Bloch sitting at their desks (Bloch looking toward camera), 1947. Computation Laboratory

  • Ordnance Unit 4-3 Boasts of Expert 4ND Naval Reserve News Training and Information Bulletin, June 1953; (page twenty-six) a biography of Grace Hopper and photo.

  • Humor File - From Grace Hopper. Table of Contents, four pages

  • (42) Lt. (J.G.) Lish Bailey and Gary Huntsberger beside a tree

  • New York Herald Tribune, "The Greatest of Mathematical Calculating Machines and Its Designer". Pictures Aiken with Mark I, Hopper with tape punch, Bloch with output

  • Multiplies Billions in One Flash: Navy's New Machine Made at Harvard for $600,000 Robert M. Farrington, a Boston paper, 7 March 1948 (AP), Mark II, move to Dahlgren.

  • Volume XIV, No. 9, September, 1950, "Material Control by UNIVAC: Maintaining balanced inventories requires a system which combines great flexibility and amazing speed." by T. Wister Brown (pages 15, 34).

  • Working Paper on a Vocabulary for Information Processing by a subcommittee of the American Standards Association

  • (19) Mark I from typewriters toward constant switches,

  • Christian Science Monitor

  • Volume XVII, No. 4 April, 1953 "Getting Facts Faster: A glimpse at some of the inner workings of the UNIVAC, and what it can do towards solving complex business problems." by Robin Leatherman (pages 7-8).

  • (14) Navy Specialists Operators of the Mark I, in front of the Mark I. L to R: White, Livingston, Calvin, Bissell, August 1944. (15) Calvin looking at typewriter and output, 1944.

  • Volume XVII, No. 3, March, 1953 "Announcing...A Forward Step Towards Automatic Process Control the "ERA 1103" Electronic Computer".

  • Schedule "A" Electronic Machine

  • Wayman, Dorothy G. "Harvard Gets Huge Calculator: 51-Foot Machine Costs $250,000, Took Six Years" The Boston Daily Globe, 7 August 1944.

  • Problem L Coding a second draft by Hopper

  • (86) Unidentified man, undated

  • General Views on COBOL by Jean E. Sammet, Data Systems Operations, Sylvania Electric Products, Inc. 189 B Street, Needham 94, Massachusetts

  • PROBLEM L by Grace Hopper unlined paper, two holes at top personnel who worked on different aspects of getting Problem L to run

  • (55) Basement of Cruft Lab, 9 September 1945

  • Robot Solves Complicated Mathematics,

  • (3) Livingston and Campbell setting constant switches no later than August 1944.

  • (1) Problem L Operating Instructions

  • (7) March 1948 Relays: latch type below

  • Quote of J.M. Keynes. "Too large a portion of recent "mathematical" economics are mere concoctions, as imprecise as the initial assumptions they rest on, which allow the author to lose sight of the complexities and interdependencies of the real world in a maze of pretentious and unhelpful symbols"--according to Grace Hopper, circulated around EMCC.

  • (56) Working on the blueprints for the Mark II 27 September 1945; L to R: Aiken, Campbell, Miller, ? , Wilkins

  • Dots on Film Latest in Speed Calculation, Boston Sunday Herald, 9 November 1947 (AP); Kodak photographic memory.

  • Exhibit E, Bureau of the Census: Workshop on Automatic Programming for the UNIVAC

  • (25) Calvin, in back of a house,

  • Sample Table of Contents for Reports A-12 by GMH (Grace Murray Hopper), 1 page.

  • (34) View of the party L to R: Hopper (partially obscured), Campbell, Priscilla (Bloch's 1st wife), Bloch, ?

  • Formulas and coding for Problem G on the Mark I.

  • (8) Cam Unit: details of cam-controlled

  • World's Greatest Machine for Automatic Calculation Science News Letter, 19 August 1944; picture of calculator on front cover topic: Engineering-Mathematics.

  • (64) Looking through the plastic cover to Mark I printers L to R; Campbell (in the shadow), Livingston, White, pre-1947

  • 1/14/47 MFF Print Counter and Typewriters

  • Invitation to Dr. Grace Hopper: "President Conant requests the honor of your presence at luncheon in the Warburg Room of the Fogg Museum of Art on Tuesday, January the seventh at twelve-fifteen o'clock on the occasion of the Opening of The Computation Laboratory"; RSVP to Prof. Aiken, also envelope

  • Tiny 'Brain' Robot Not So Very Dumb: 'Simple Simon' Proves That He's Clever Enough to Know Own Limitations, New York Times, Friday, 19 May 1950 Berkeley's 'Simple Simon' photo: "Mechanical 'Brain' Demonstrated At Columbia"; Berkeley, Vall and Jensen (builders) and 'Simple Simon".

  • (43) 18 February 1948 Packing Mark II for move to Dahlgren

  • Staff List--Departments of Physics, Engineering Sciences, and Applied Physics,

  • Army's Electronic 'Brains' Addled, The Boston Herald, Wednesday, 21 April 1948 (AP); reports tube breakdowns, lack of personnel to keep ENIAC busy.

  • Davis, Watson, Ten Most Important Scientific Advancements of 1944,

  • Letter to Hopper from C.B. Tompkins, 21 January 1947.

  • (78) Cmdr. Aiken and Lt. Hopper with parts of the difference engine; Christian Science Monitor picture seen in the Christian Science Monitor 20 March 1946, 1st page of second section

  • Periodicals and Brochures

  • Giant New Calculator Science News Letter 12 August 1944, topic: Engineering-Mathematics.

  • Log n factorial 1-100

  • Slip of Paper with Writing "Hopren Bioq P - Photo"

  • (11) Sequence Mechanism and Roller Panel

  • RemRand News; Vol. IV, No. 20, New York 10, New York, July 1953

  • Input-Output Instructions (Preliminary) by Dr. Grace Murray Hopper

  • Joint AIEE-IRE Computer Conference Program, Benjamin Franklin Hotel, 9th and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

  • Layout of Mark II Original blueprint drawing by L.C.K.

  • BINAC Instructions by Grace Hopper

  • New Old Faithful; 050-11, no author "The purpose of this routine is to test all UNIVAC instructions and to perform a memory check." p.1.

  • Mechanical Einstein' Calculator Has Mathematical World in Palm", The Boston Herald, Friday, 15 February 1946 (AP) ENIAC.

  • (2) AA 965 Main Control Board and Wings

  • Says Era of Mechanical Calculators Lies Ahead of Us

  • New I.B.M. Electrical Brain Eases Shortage of Scientists: Frees Top Experts From Computation Drudgery in Research So That They Can Solve More Problems and Open New Fields of Inquiry", John J. O'Neill, New York Herald Tribune, 8 February 1948, page 10 II IBM SSEC, IBM biased.

  • Coding of a LaPlace Boundary Value Problem for the UNIVAC by Frances E. Snyder, Betty Holberton, and Hubert M. Livingston.

  • (24) Livingston operating tape punch,

  • Criteria for Evaluation of Compiling Systems: General Requirements (no author)

  • (41) Front View of Main Control Board, under construction from the left

  • Symposium of Calculator Experts Opens New Computator Laboratory

  • Proposed Automatic Calculator for Dahlgren Proving Ground, by Howard H. Aiken, Comdr. USNR, Officer in Charge, and Robert V.D. Campbell, Ensign, USNR Report No. 13, Bureau of Ships Computation Project Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 1944.

  • Mathematics by the Millions editorial

  • Memoranda for Henry W. Schrimpf, Methods Analyst, re: ONR Mathematical Computing Advisory Panel Meeting

  • Matrix Inversion Routine for the BINAC

  • Title page: COMPILING ROUTINES, 21 December 1953

  • Electronic Brains: Calculating Machines Help Lighten Industry's Record Keeping Chores: High-Speed Computers Take Inventory, Figure Utility and Insurance Bills, An Aid to Oil-Well Drillers, James P. Thurber, Jr., The Wall Street Journal, 29 July 1953 (p. 1, 15).

  • Torrey, Volta, Robot Mathematician Knows All the Answers, Popular Science, October 1944, pp. 86-89, 222f.

  • (76) Drawing of interpolator tape with various values. Photograph of this is Neg. # AA-443 March 27, 1946; the values ARG 0.32 to ARG 0.31 are seen like this in the Mark I Manual, Fig. 14

  • 2150 A.D.**Preview of the Robot Age: Machines that think and do the hard work will free men to develop their real talents, Edmund C. Berkeley, New York Times Magazine, Sunday, 19 November 1950 (pp. 19, 68f).

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Grace Murray Hopper Collection
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