Computer History Museum

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The Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

A Cray 2 supercomputer at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

The Computer History Museum is a museum established in 1996, when the Boston Computer Museum sent its large mainframes and historical artifacts collection to Moffett Field, California so that the Boston location could concentrate on computing-related exhibits for children. Thus, it was originally the West Coast division of The Computer Museum, named The Computer Museum History Center[1] until it shortened its name in 2001, dedicated to preserving and presenting the stories and artifacts of the information age, and exploring the computing revolution and its impact on our lives.

When the Boston Computer Museum closed in 1999, its remaining historical artifacts were sent to The Computer Museum History Center at Moffett Field [2] and the remaining computer exhibits were absorbed into the Museum of Science collection in Boston.

Originally located at Moffett Field in an old building that was previously the Naval Base furniture store, the museum acquired its current building (previously occupied by Silicon Graphics), at 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. in Mountain View, California, USA (Silicon Valley) in October 2002. It opened there to the public in June 2003.

The museum currently has three unique exhibits highlighting important milestones from the history of computing, the history of computer chess, and inventions from Silicon Valley companies and people. The museum's signature Timeline of Computing History, covering computing history from Sumerian clay tablets to the iPod, will open in 2009. Tour hours are currently (2006) offered four afternoons per week on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free.

The Computer History Museum is home to the largest and most significant collection of computing artifacts in the world. This includes many rare or one-of-a-kind objects such as a Cray-1 supercomputer, the 1969 Neiman Marcus (Honeywell) Kitchen Computer, Hewitt Crane's all-magnetic computer, an Apple I, and an example of the first generation of Google's racks of custom-designed web servers^[1]. The collection comprises nearly 50,000 objects, photographs and films, as well as 4,000 linear feet of catalogued documentation and several hundred gigabytes of software.