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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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  • Constants (pi, square roots, logs, )

  • Remington Rand Corporation, COBOL demonstartion

  • Audiovisual Materials

  • UNIVAC, Flow-matic chart of assignments and reporting

  • 7/24/46 CMC Intermediate Counter - Sign Circuits

  • 11/8/46 MFF Tape Punch and Tape Register

  • Writings by Grace Hopper

  • (61) Working on the plugging and backboard wiring of the Mark II 5 June 1946. Chief Porter, White shirt

  • News clippings about computers

  • Computer Resources: Possible Future's, Hardware, Software, People, Part II

  • Computer Resources: Possible Future's, Hardware, Software, People, Part I

  • Report of Dr. Grace Hopper on 6 January 19??

  • Powers of ten (0.1 to 0.9)

  • MARK I, plugboards

  • Computer education (newspaper clippings)

  • Harvard's New 'Brain' Permits Social Studies, Boston Herald, Friday, 10 January 1947; Dr. Wassily Leontief, economic analysis on computers.

  • UNIVAC, What Every Businessman Should Know About Electronic Brains

  • McKinsey and Company, Inc. EDP The First Years, Highlights of Management Experience and a Look Ahead

  • UNIVAC, Bureau of Census

  • Problem Coded for Automaytic Sequence Controlled Calculator (MARK 1)

  • Harvard Puts Big Calculator in New Home, Natural Science Editor (H.B.N.), Christian Science Monitor, 30 December 1946 (p. 2.). Comp Lab, moving Mark I.

  • Computer Resources: Possible Future's, Hardware, Software, People, Part III

  • Description of a Relay Calculator Mark II Manual by the Staff of the Computation Laboratory; Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1949, Volume XXIV of the Annals of the Computation Laboratory.

  • 6/8/46 EHM Sequence-Start, Repeat, Stop-Cascade Relays - C Codes

  • Harvard University Press. Fall Books

  • Demonstration Problem for BINAC

  • UNIVAC, Flow-Matic, Introducing a New Language for Automatics

  • Standardization of Computer Languages, Some Implications for the U.S. Navy, Reel 2

  • Post (handwritten) "Automatic Brain for Harvard" p. 1 to continuation "Harvard Gets World's Greatest Calculator" W/picture Aiken, Hopper and interpolator.

  • 1/30/47 MFF Functional Relay Panel

  • Palm, Conny. Table of the Erlang Loss Formula

  • Multiplication Plugging diagram see also: Aiken and Hopper "The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator--III", Figure 6.

  • Remington Rand, Progress in the Field of Electronics for Business, Industry and Government

  • Diagram of Mark I circuitry by Hopper

  • Electronic Brains: Computing Machines Help Build Airplanes Faster and Cheaper: Tell How Many Rivets to Put On a Wing; Steal Work of Wind Tunnels, Test Pilots; Year's Job Done in Minutes, Walter H. Oxstein The Wall Street Journal, 14 August 1950 (p. 1), West Coast developments.

  • (74) Lt. Hopper seen at her desk in the Computation Laboratory; glass shelves with early calculating machines seen in background, 1947

  • 8/31/46 EHM Sine In-Out Counter

  • Los Alamos, Scientific Laboratory, A Shorthand Coding System for the IBM 701 Calculator

  • Envelopes used by Navy Project at Harvard.

  • SCM Data Processing Systems

  • UNIVAC Short Code, Remington Rand, Eckert-Mauchly Division

  • 6/21/46 CMC Sequence-Cascade Relays - B Codes Part II

  • 'Mechanical Brain' from Harvard To Seek 'Push-Button' War Answers Boston Sunday Herald, 7 March 1948, (AP) Mark II, move to Dahlgren.

  • Timing Diagram: Cams and relays involved in number transfer and schematic diagrams showing timing and principal control channels of Mark I, undated

  • Science Vol. 104, No. 2712 Friday, 20 December 1946 (pp. 581-608): NRC National Research Council News (p. 595) Division of Physical Sciences announces formation of new Committee on High-Speed Calculating Machines. Chairman: John von Neumann, Members: Howard H. Aiken, Walter Bartky, Samuel H. Caldwell, George R. Stibitz, Warren Weaver, to study principles and possibilities of machines to find ways of increasing speed of computation to distribute information to interested parties.

  • N factorial 1-12

  • Manchester University Computer Inaugural Conference

  • Number 20 October 1947

  • (3) Determination of Which Machine Function is Causing Trouble

  • UNIVAC, Dedication of the Fac-Tronic System

  • 7/3/46 CMC Sequence-Cascade Relays - A Codes Part I

  • Grace Murray Hopper Collection Finding Aid--Page 48

  • Preliminary Outline of Compilation Phases (1) - (5) B-O

  • Wyle Laboratories, Wyle Scientific desk calculator

  • Schematic diagram: Number transfer circuits Mark I Diagram, undated

  • Specifications for the UNIVAC Fac-Tronic System

  • Developments in Compiling Techniques to 31 December 1953

  • Shellaby, Robert K (Staff Writer of The Christian Science Monitor) New Navy Calculator Solves Difficult Problems in Seconds.

  • 3/21/47 LCK Interpolators - Counters and Switches

  • Number 23

  • Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation.

  • 9/4/46 CMC Multiply-Divide Sequencing Part I - Sequence Counter

  • Launching The Amazing Grace Hopper

  • Addenda

  • Number 22 (2 copies)

  • Computers Beat Brain: New Electronic Devices Said to Be 100,000 Times Faster New York Times, Friday, 31 January 1947 (page C5). American Institute of Electrical Engineers Sharpless (EDVAC), Forrester (Whirlwind).

  • Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation

  • MIT, Instrumentation Laboratory, Engineering Memorandum E-364 A program for Translation of mathematical Equations for Whirlwind

  • 5/6/46 EHM Normal Storage Counter and Automatic Check Counter (2 copies)

  • Standardization of Computer Languages, Some Implications for the U.S. Navy, Reel 3

  • Imperial College of Science and Technology, Mathematics Department, report on the Work of the Computer

  • UNIVAC, United States Presidential Election

  • Automatic Programming Development: "Programming Package" or "Layette for a Computer" by Dr. Grace Murray Hopper

  • 5/17/46 EHM Switches, Independent Variable Switch and Special Storage Counters (2 copies)

  • (22) Operating

  • Preliminary Manual for Math-Matic and Arith-Matic Systems for Algebraic Translation and Compilation for the UNIVAC I and II

  • Office Work at Electronic Speed,

  • Mechanical Brain Moved to Navy Proving Ground New York Herald Tribune, Sunday, 8 March 1948 (AP) Mark II, Move to Dahlgren.

  • 5/28/46 EHM Counter Employed in Logarithm Unit

  • Random Number Generation and memory test, Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation

  • Number 21 January 1948

  • 8/24/46 CMC Logarithm Unit - Control Circuits

  • International Data Processing Conference and Business Exposition

  • International Information Processing Equipment Exhibition

  • Compiling Routine, A-0, part 1

  • 6/24/46 EHM Dividend Counter

  • Tym Share, Inc. (Tyme Capsule I)

  • Software history (articles)

  • 4/21/47 LCK Interpolators - Sequencing and Tape Reading

  • Harvard Told Robot Brain Just a Starter" from a Boston paper.

  • Sorbann Engineering, Inc.

  • Tri-Data Corporation (Cartifile)

  • Watch schedule for Mark I when it was running, Problem L. Nov. 45 - 1 March 46, Problem L File.

  • (67) Envelope from WINTHROP FOSTER, Northampton's Camera Store with order for prints made from negatives for Mitchell, Hotel 206

  • 9/26/46 MFF Multiplier and Multiplicand-Divisor (Single) Counters

  • PROBLEM L by Grace Hopper unlined paper, two holes at top. Note bottom: "Computed, designed, coded, babied, nursed, pleaded with and mothered by" Grace Hopper. Middle: "Errors in mathematics and tape bugs pursued and captured by Ensign Bloch and Ensign Campbell".

  • Automatic Programming, glossary of terms

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

  • UNIVAC, Flow-Matic compiler

  • Programming manual for the UNIVAC System, Part 1

Pages

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Grace Murray Hopper Collection
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International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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