The Digital Computer Museum opens inside Digital Equipment Corporation's office in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
1984
The Computer Museum, dropping "Digital" from its name, relocates to Museum Wharf in the heart of downtown Boston. Please see the
The Computer Museum historical website (http://tcm.computerhistory.org/) for all the
talks, exhibits, and publications.
1987
The Computer Museum begins its Fellow Awards program and names Grace Hopper as the first recipient.
1990
The Computer Museum expands its exhibits with a two-story walkthrough computer and other innovative educational displays for school-age children.
1991
The major permanent exhibition People and Computers: Milestones of a Revolution opens, featuring many unique and important computers
including the MIT Whirlwind, UNIVAC 1, IBM 360/30, Cray-1, DEC PDP-8, and Apple-1.
1996
The Computer Museum moves the unused historical collection west to Moffett Field in Mountain View, California and enters a new phase with the
establishment of The Computer Museum History Center.
1999
The Computer Museum in Boston closes and moves some of the exhibits into Boston’s Museum of Science. The remainder of the historical collection
of world-class artifacts travels to The Computer Museum History Center in Mountain View, which incorporates as a new independent California
501(c)3 non-profit.
2000
Independent of a progenitor institution which no longer exists, The Computer Museum History Center is renamed the Computer History Museum.
2002
The Computer History Museum purchases a landmark building in Mountain View, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Now with a permanent home,
the Museum opens its Visible Storage exhibit (now only on the web).
2005
The Museum opens a new exhibit on the history of computer chess: Mastering the Game (now only on the web). The
exhibit was a prototype of the exhibit development process that used rich content and advanced technologies to create an engaging visitor
experience.
2006
In December, the Web History Center joins the Computer History Museum to preserve the history of the web and make it available to everyone. The
mission is to identify and secure records from Web pioneers, companies, and other sources to preserve the Web's collective memory.
2007
The Museum buys a modern climate-controlled storage facility in Milpitas, California to store the 90% of its collection which is not on display
at any given time.
2008
The Museum opens the Babbage Difference Engine #2 exhibit. The Difference Engine #2 is a 5-ton Victorian era
calculating machine with 8,000 parts. Babbage never saw it work. You can learn more about the
Difference Engine #2 in our online exhibit.
2010
In November, the Museum begins a major renovation of its building.
2011
In January, the Museum reopens with a new lobby, café, gift store and signature exhibition called
Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. Revolution is a look back at computers through the ages — from
the abacus to the smartphone — and the amazing human stories they tell.