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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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  • Eckert-Mauchly Corporation

  • Conscience in Science editorial, Boston Globe, Friday, 10 January 1947, (page 18); Wiener, progress in science and destruction of human life.

  • (10) Bissell outside someone's back door, 1944 or 1945; (2 copies)

  • Mark II Manual

  • (24) Left Wing of Calculator: Interpolator Mechanisms

  • Round Robin Letter (Anonymous, typed on 2 sheets tissue paper). Attributes of people at Eckert-Mauchly, includes such as: Most Promising: Gen. Groves (He is always promising something)

  • (65) Working on the plugging for the Mark II. L to R: Hawkins going at the machine, Burns with pencil behind ear, Roche looking on, Bloch sitting with wiring diagram, 20 September 1946

  • (82) Aiken showing the tape punches and readers to Rear Admiral C.T. Joy, Director, Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Va., 1947

  • (27) Interpolator Mechanism: interior view

  • Harvard Alumni Bulletin: War Summer, Vol 47, No. 1, 23 September 1944.

  • Humor File

  • (8) Lt. Arnold and Lt. Hopper outside Cruft Laboratory, 1944 or 1945

  • Journal of Applied Physics (Volume 17, Number 10 -October 1946) Section: Here and There (page 856); Harvard Computation Laboratory Comp. Lab, general use of Mark I. Drawings: First Floor Plan, Comp Lab (p. 856). Drawing of outside front view (cover).

  • Graph of trials of approximation

  • (28) Grace Hopper walking across the yard near Cruft Lab (1945 to 1949 (?)

  • Request from Lt. (jg) Grace Murray HOPPER, USNR, WR (379475) to Officer-in Charge, BuShips, Computation Project (Howard Aiken) 18 April 1945 request to wear dress uniform as bridesmaid.

  • (43) Eating around the campfire Huntsberger on log, White standing behind fire

  • Solution of Matrix Equations of High Order by an Automatic Computer,

  • (4) AA 955 Operator's Table and Printers

  • Poem (anonymous, 2 tissue paper copies) "Immediately to the right of the main entrance is a classroom seating 59 students. --HAB 14 December 1946".

  • Volume XIV, No. 6 June 1950 "Electronic Accounting" by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, pages 10-11, 27.

  • Postcard from Newfoundland to "Computation Laboratory, Harvard University" date 13 Nov. 46 signature Howard Aiken on way to UNESCO; see Comrie Letters IBM P.6

  • Exhibit I, Letter to Dr. Grace Hopper from Emil D. Schell, Chief, Mathematical Computation Branch, AFAPA-3B, DCS/Comptroller, Headquarters USAF, Washington 25, D.C.

  • Publicity Release of the Joint Development Board (typed both sides 3 x 5 card dateline: New York Times, Jan 1/51).

  • (38) Watching the ball game, Aiken from the other side with some wives on the bench

  • Problem L Tape

  • Navy Calculating Machine Moved to Dahlgren, Va." a Boston paper, day after 1st Naval District announced people going with calculator.

  • Tables of constants for the Mark I.

  • (12) 8 January 1948 Switches: left side of calculator constants

  • (32) Campbell with apron on, drinking

  • The "Electronics" Prayer by "Who'dedmitit" (carbon copy on tissue). Top corner: 26 May 1950 CC-5 "Our UNIVAC, which art in Philadelphia,..." (also four xerox copies of same).

  • Grant, Lester "35-Ton Super-Brain Can Solve Hardest Mathematical Problem: It can do Simple Addition or Dynamic Equations; an Hour-Long Problem Solved in 5.8 Seconds; I.B.M. Presents Device to Harvard Today" Staff Correspondent to ? dateline

  • (81) Showing off the Mark II, 1947. L to R: Woltmann, explaining the tape reader; Admiral Deyo, Commandant, First Naval District; Capt. C.C. Bramble; Admiral C.T. Joy, Director, Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Va.; Aiken, Reynolds

  • Influence of Programming Techniques on the Design of Computers By Grace M. Hopper and John W. Mauchly reprinted from the Proceedings of the I.R.E. Vol. 41, No. 10, October, 1953, pp. 1250-1254.

  • (69) Construction of the Computation Laboratory basement complete, putting up walls around the outside, also girders to support floor of computer room. Note: wet concrete in left corner of picture

  • (35) Wheatland and Bissell in the kitchen pouring drinks

  • Outline for Second Lecture: Programming Course for EMCC's Engineers; A-TC-7, no author but probably by H.F. Mitchell (see First Lecture), 2 pages.

  • Mechanical Brain Strictly a Moron: 60-Pound Device Balks at Adding Two and Two, Newark Evening News, Friday, 19 May 1950 (AP p. 13). Berkeley's 'Simple Simon', photo: "Mechanical Mental Midget", Berkeley, Vall and Jensen (builders).

  • Problem L Coding a first draft by Hopper

  • (32) Relay Bank and Rotary Switch

  • New, Faster Mechanical Brain Being Built at Harvard for Navy Paul Stevens (2 copies) 22 August 194?, photos: Aiken, Hopper Mark III.

  • (1) AA 964 General View of the Calculator Frontispiece

  • Associated Press "New Machine Marvel As Math. Calculator" The Boston Daily Record, 7 August 1944.

  • Outline for First Lecture: Programming Course for EMCC's Engineers; A-TC-7 by HFM jr (Herbert F. Mitchell, Jr.), 4 pages.

  • Program (Advance) Second Annual Joint AIEE, IRE, ACM Computer Conference and Exhibition, 10-12 December 1952, Park Sheraton Hotel, 7th Avenue and 55th Street, New York City: featuring "Input and Output Equipment Used in Computing Systems".

  • (33) Campbell, with apron on, at microphone

  • Problem L Report of the development of the coding for Problem L (?) by Hopper

  • Exhibit A, The Education of a Computer by Dr. Grace Murray Hopper

  • Memo of report by Grace M. Hopper, 6 January 19??; abstract of the report.

  • Cartoon (copyright by Field Enterprises, Inc.): "It's some Senate committee, professor... they're investigating the 'Brain's' loyalty.." with "Gil" written in on one of the committee, "Herb" on the professor 1953 (from copyright)

  • Official Register of Harvard University (Volume XLIII, 25 September 1946, No. 25)

  • "Harvard's Robot Super-Brain" by Gobind Behari Lal. Dated October 15, 194?.

  • UNIVAC Instructions C-10

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

  • An Introduction to The UNIVAC System.

  • (19) Interior of Relay Cubicle

  • (18) Mark I composite photo straight on,

  • (17) Sequence Mechanism: detail showing sensing pins and control tape

  • (13) View of the Mark I, light up, from storage counters toward printers, with Bloch looking at printer output; pre-August 1944: also clipping of same, Harvard Service News, 8 August 1944.

  • Undergraduate Designs Radical Abacus to Rival Harvard Electronic Calculator Yale Daily News, Friday, January 10, 1947 (p. 1, 5). A.G. Puddlefoot, Yale '50, with circular abacus challenges Mark I or II. Photo: Puddlefoot with abacus.

  • Invitation to Lieutenant Grace M. Hopper "to attend the Formal Acceptance Ceremonies of the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator" Monday, August 7, 1944, The Faculty Room of University Hall

  • Survey of Automatic Data-handling and computing (3 pp. blank form).

  • Systems of Debugging Automatic Coding" by Charles Katz. Reprint from Monograph No. 3, Journal of the Franklin Institute Series, April, 1957, pages 17-27.

  • (31) Hopper and Campbell in front of fireplace with microphone

  • Photographs of blueprint drawings, contain all of the circuits of Mark I:

  • II Random sequences of angles 000 to 360

  • Technical Documents

  • Compiling Routines

  • Compiling Routines by Dr. Grace M. Hopper Vice-President, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia: Computers and Automation, formerly The Computing Machinery Field Vol. 2, No. 4 May, 1953.

  • (77) Richard P. Babbage, Charles Babbage's grandson, showing parts of the difference engine to Aiken, December, 1946; also seen in the Christian Science Monitor, 9 January 1947 ("Britain's First Mathematical Engine.Ó)

  • Cartoon by Grace Hopper (pencil on plain paper).

  • (72) Beginning to move the Mark I to its new home in the Computation Laboratory L to R: Lucchini wielding hammer, Pizzano and Roche holding A-frame, Burns standing

  • Highbrow Harvard Bows To A Robot Brain, Sunday Mirror Magazine, 5 August 1945; Mark I, tests against known answers, uses for Navy.

  • (20) Sequence Mechanism

  • (85) Mark III tape reader

  • Evening Course in Mathematics for Digital Computers Conducted by Dr. John W. Mauchly, Fall Semester 1952-1953, Department of Mathematics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Temple University, Philadelphia 22, Pennsylvania: course description pamphlet.

  • Binary and Excess --Three Systems April 27, 1950: A-140-8 by AAK (Arthur A. Katz), original 11 June 1949; revised

  • UNIVAC, Type 1801 Verify Punch and Type 1710 Verifying Interpreting Punch

  • Glossary of computing terms compiled for the Franklin Institute Computing Center, 1958.

  • Number 16 October 1946

  • Pergammon Press flier (science, technology, and medicine publications)

  • Progress in Information Processing (exhibit) by the National Science Foundation

  • UNIVAC Instructions Code C-10 by F.E.S. (Frances Elizabeth Snyder)

  • Compiling Routine, A-1

  • International Business Machines Corporation

  • Number 24

  • (39) The ball game; Hawkins the catcher, Mrs. Campbell(?) at bat, Livingston and ? with wives as spectators

  • Analysis of UNIVAC Instructions

  • UNIVAC I, Calculation of Extended Insurance

  • Standardization of Computer Languages, Some Implications for the U.S. Navy, Reel 1

  • Harvard University: The President's Report

  • 7/25/46 EHM Multiply, Divide Relay Panel (2 copies)

  • 5/9/47 MFF Card Feeds and Punch

  • Number 18 April 1947

  • UNIVAC, humourous sketch by Grace Hopper

  • The Aiken Machine editorial taped to same page as above

  • 8/10/46 EHM Exponential Unit (2 copies)

  • International Federation of Information Processing, UNIVAC

  • Photographs: ENIAC, setting constants, wiring, MIT electro-mechanical differential analyzer, input graphically; Westinghouse network calculator; ENIAC digit trays; Aiken and Hopper with difference engine.

  • Electrical Engineering

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Grace Murray Hopper Collection
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