Title
Computer Museum Opening, lecture by Gordon Bell and Maurice WilkesCatalog Number
102695240Type
Moving ImageDescription
On September 24th, 1979, The Digital Computer Museum opened in the lobby of a Digital Equipment Corporation building in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The opening party featured many significant figures in the history of computing, including Maurice Wilkes. This footage is of the party held that night, largely of attendees talking or looking at the computer timeline exhibit. Included is footage of the ribbon-cutting by DEC founder Ken Olsen and Gordon Bell, as well as a retake of the ribbon cutting done because the camera was out of position! This is raw footage from the event, but includes many shots of the TX-0 computer (1957), which was installed to closely resemble its original appearance.Additional b-roll footage shows the exhibition and artifacts at the newly opened Digital Computer Museum in 1979. Highlights include panels from Whirlwind, a PDP-1, a PDP-8, calculators, MIT’s TX-0 computer, and a working DEC VT100 connected to a 32-bit VAX that included an interactive guide to the Museum. A visitor is shown using the interactive guide.