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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

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  • Automatic Subroutine for the Elementary Transcendental Functions, October 1951, note in pencil on top of page: "Joe Harrison to Hopper problems lead to Compiler".

  • Preliminary Definitions: Data-Processing Compiler by Dr. Grace Murray Hopper

  • Coding card (code 1-8431, noting switches, counters, description, all on one card, two sheets of paper on cardboard, covered with plastic)

  • (15) 8 January 1948 Tape Reading and Tape Punching Mechanisms

  • (31) Lower Portion of Main Control Panel

  • UNIVAC Beats Statisticians on Election Night by A.C. Hancock. Reprint from Systems Magazine, December, 1952.

  • (38) Main Control Panel

  • Grace Hopper's first code card for BINAC (3 x 5 card, in yellow envelope).

  • Press Clippings

  • IV Binomial distribution function

  • Exhibit F, Statement of the Optical Ray Problem

  • A-2 Compiler

  • V Normal distribution function

  • Christian Science Monitor, Tuesday, 14 October 1947, Page 9 (1st page, Second Sect.) "Mechanical Calculators Eject Right Answers Quicker'n a Flash", full page on high speed calculators (6 copies) including: "Demands of War Spurred Push-Button Analyzers: Electronics Count Years in Seconds" by Herbert B. Nichols (Natural Science Editor, CSM), survey of U.S. Development. "Defies Imagination" by Dr. E.U. Condon (Director of the National Bureau of Standards). "Overseas Use of Robot Calculators Speeded: Rapid Solutions Welcomed" by H.B. Nichols, includes: England, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Norway photographs: full view Mark II, ENIAC switches, Mark II interpolators, MIT's electro-mechanical differential analyzer output paper tape.

  • UNIVAC System: 1948-1951 Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corp.

  • Topic List for Numerical Analysis, Report A-TC-2B by Herbert F. Mitchell, Jr.

  • Popular Science Monthly (Volume 150: No. 5)

  • (21) Livingston in front of a house,

  • Exhibit B, Compiling Routines by Richard K. Ridgway

  • Science and Review: 'Memory' Device: Calculator Control Unit Works With Super-Human Speed Waldemar Kaempffert, page E9: memory device -Kodak photographic memory.

  • 60-Day Moving Job Just Case of Harvard 'Brain' Fatigue, W.E. Playfair Boston Sunday Herald, 15 September 1946 (p. 1, 2C., 2 copies) move to Computation Lab from Cruft Lab, description of lab.

  • (3) Floor Plan of the Calculator

  • Tiny Mechanical 'Brain' Notable for Stupidity, New York Times, Thursday, 18 May 1950: announcement of unveiling of 'Simple Simon' at Columbia.

  • Flow Chart Symbols, MP-2 by Arthur A. Katz

  • Automatic Programming Development: Program for B-0 Compiler Development by Marjorie M. Mulder (?) and Norma C. Cousins; 2 pages, #1 Memo, #2 Flowchart of work setup.

  • Mammoth Mechanical Brain Is Irked by Too Much Work New York Herald Tribune, 12 January 1947, Mark II.

  • Poisson distribution

  • Fabulous Robot Brain Now Works For Navy, Paul Stevens, Boston Herald, Monday, 7 August 1944, (pp. 1, 6.) also tape, Mark I dedication.

  • (84) Peter Lindley with pipe and slide rule

  • Why Study When Machine Knows All the Answers?: Ivy Orator Says Mechanical Brain Solves Conant's Income Tax and Makes Salads, (2 copies) Boston Daily Globe, Wednesday, 4 June 1947.

  • (6) 8 January 1948 Tape Preparation Table

  • Network 'Drafts' UNIVAC for Election Coverage: CBS to Use Electronic Robot To Forecast Election Results The Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia, Wednesday, 15 October 1952. UNIVAC in 1952 election photo: Eckert, Cronkite and operator with UNIVAC.

  • Making Weather to Order, John Kord Lagemann, TW 23 February 1947 pp. 4, 5, 28. Dr. V.K. Zworykin of RCA, calculating machine for weather control. Note: designed by von Neumann, Zworykin, and Spilhaus of NYU during WWII and declassified in 1947, under construction.

  • (40) View of the Calculator

  • Exhibit J, Too Faded to Determine Author, Recipient, Date, or Subject.

  • Biggest Harvard 'Brain' Tuned to Navy Rockets

  • Wiener Denounces Devices 'For War': M.I.T. Mathematician Rebuffs Bid to Harvard Symposium of Calculating Machinery Special to the New York Times, 9 January 1947; refuse to speak at Navy-sponsored conference.

  • (58) Working on the plugging of the Mark II, 1946. L: Roche R: Hawkins

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

  • (54) Steeple of Harvard's Memorial Church in the Harvard Yard as seen from the science buildings

  • Tables of the Modified Hankel Functions of Order One-Third and of Their Derivatives

  • Mathematical Brain, title under photos in Boston paper, 7 Aug. 1944 Aiken and Hopper with interpolator, White with tape racks, Aiken with interpolator(?)

  • (11) Lt. Hopper in dress whites in front of ivy covered wall, 1944 or 1945.

  • Time Sequence U.S. Computers, by Grace Murray Hopper

  • (63) Ensign Brendel at desk with coding chart on wall behind, 1945 or 1946

  • Cartoon by Collinge "A strict diet of simple algebra --and NO calculus." The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, June 1, 1952

  • Presto! Math Made Easy With New 'Gadget': Plainfielder's Niece is Operator of Robot 'Einstein' Plainfield, N.J.

  • (37) Watching the ball game from the sidelines L to R: Livingston, White, Calvin, Aiken stretched out

  • (26) Four scenes of winter of 1945 along Massachusetts Avenue near Cruft Laboratory.

  • (35) Interpolator Mechanism

  • (2) Problem L Operating Instructions

  • (5) AA 1000 Cam Unit

  • Invitation by The Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation

  • Successive Differences, undated

  • Mechanical Brains:

  • Robot Works Problems Never Before Solved, Popular Mechanics Magazine, October 1944; Pictures: Aiken with calculator, Hopper with tape punch, Verdonck(?) with tape racks, view of tape.

  • Cartoon (copyright by Field Enterprises, Inc.): "We've eliminated the last 'bug', gentlemen... the human element"... it'll now do an income tax return without blowing a fuse!", March 23, 1952 a Philadelphia paper.

  • Systems Engineer, 14 August 1952; one tissue paper original copy by RDW, corrected in blue pencil by Herbert F. Mitchell; first definition of a systems engineer.

  • (23) White, seated in chair, looking at book,

  • DP DEFINITIONS by Shirley Marks. ACM date: month after ACM's 11th anniversary includes such as: "Conversion Routine --Missionary work among the Decimals." "Simpson's Rule --Evaluate an integral as you would have an integral evaluate you."

  • Reciprocals of numbers 1-99

  • (16) 8 January 1948 Control Tape Preparation Unit

  • (29) Bob Campbell at table in Cruft Lab , pre-1947 (2 copies).

  • (7) Staff Portrait, at the time of the dedication, August 1944 top: Bissell, Calvin, Verdonck, Livingston, White; bottom: Bloch, Arnold, Aiken, Hopper, Campbell.

  • Duty officers, 23 April to 10 June, 1945

  • (26) Front Panel of Interpolator Mechanism

  • 25-Ton 'Mechanical Brain' Built at Harvard for Navy Boston Sunday Globe, 7 March 1948; photo of Mark II, move to Dahlgren.

  • Photographs at Harvard

  • (50) The Iceman Cometh, getting ice before the trip L to R: Hawkins, Campbell, Bloch, Livingston, Aiken, Iceman, Bissell

  • Science's New 'Memory Machines' do Virtually Everything But Talk, W.E. Playfair, Boston Herald, Thursday, 9 January 1947; 47 Symposium -memory devices -Sharpless (EDVAC) and Forrester (Whirlwind).

  • Calculators' Use To Solve Social Issues Forecast: Harvard Economist Asserts Nation Could Evolve Its Future By Such Machines, Stephen White, New York Times 10 January 1947; Leontief, economic analysis by computers at 47 Symposium.

  • Table of Contents "Grace Hopper's Files - Periodicals and Brochures, Early 1950's. Two Pages.

  • (28) Detail of Tape-Reader and Tape-Punch

  • Reports and Articles

  • Captain Marvel and the Incredible Calculator, (Captain Marvel Adventures Vol. 9 No. 53) 1 February 1946 Fawcett Publications Inc. 1100 W. Broadway, Louisville, KY perhaps the first comic book to contain a computer, according to Grace Hopper.

  • (44) Down the path Aiken in khaki, Hopper towing little red wagon

  • (18) Main Control Board: rear view showing sequence mechanisms

  • Machine Tape

  • (33) Switches on Operator's Table

  • Program for A Symposium on Large-Scale Digital Calculating Machinery,

  • (79) Official portrait of Aiken, sitting holding a book, 15 February 1946

  • Behemoths Multiply: British Calculators Got There First, Herbert B. Nichols, Christian Science Monitor, Babbage and Aiken.

  • (4) Cmdr. Aiken and Lt. Hopper looking at interpolator, no later than August 1944.

  • (25) Interpolator Mechanisms: rear view

  • (51) Another iceman picture L to R: Hawkins, Bloch, Livingston, Aiken, iceman

  • Invitation to LT. Hopper from Harold M. Westergaard, Dean of the Graduate School of Engineering "to attend an informal luncheon to be held... at one o'clock at the Harvard Faculty Club... before the ceremonies of formal acceptance of the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator."; place card lettered "Lt. Hopper" attached

  • Calculation of the functions h1(z), h1(z), h2(z), H2(z). by Hopper

  • (5) Grace Hopper upon graduation from Midshipman's School 27 June 1944

  • (42) Front View of Main Control Board, under construction, from the right

  • Cartoon by Grace Hopper unlined paper, two holes at top: "What counter shall I go to?"

  • (44) 20 February 1948 Crates on truck at Harvard, ready to go to Dahlgren

  • (36) Aiken, Campbell and ? in front of bus by baseball diamond

  • (29) Printer: interior view showing vanes

  • Cartoon by Stan MacGovern and Jay Nelson Tuck

  • Description of BINAC (Anonymous); typed on bond paper; "The Binac contains 835 electronic vacuum tubes, most of which lit all of the time."

  • Coding sheets and directory, Mark I,

  • New Giant 'Brain' Does Wizard Work

  • (9) Bissell, Lt. Hopper, Verdonck same spot outside Cruft 1944 or 1945.

  • Volume XIV, No. 11 November, 1950 "Mathematical Economics and the UNIVAC", by Herbert F. Mitchell, Jr., Ph.D. (pages 7, 34-35).

  • Work schedule Mark I, 1945-1946

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Grace Murray Hopper Collection
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