Bugbook Historical Computer Museum
The Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum is a small display of several hundred key items from the collection of computer hobbyist David G. Larsen. The Museum has been developed and maintained by the LCF Group (David & Gaynell Larsen and Dee Wallace) in Floyd, Virginia. The name of the museum comes from the Bugbooks and Blacksburg Continuing Education Books a, a series of instructional books created by the "Blacksburg Group" during the late 1970's & 80's. David was a part of the group.
Curator
The museum curator, David Larsen, has collected computer artifacts and memorabilia for over forty years. He was interested in electronics at an early age and had his start in computers in 1957 with a Navy assignment in Remington Rand UNIVAC St. Paul. His entire career has involved from electronics and microcomputers. This includes thirty one years as a Virginia Tech faculty member teaching instrumentation and automation. He is also an amateur radio operator and has been for six decades.
Bugbooks
The first two books were written by Professor Rony and David Larsen and they began the series called "The Blacksburg Continuing Education Series." They covered various topics such as digital electronics, Computers, and software. Eventually Dr. Jon Titus and his brother Dr. Chris Titus joined the group and became an important members of the team. From 1974 to 1984, seventy-four books were published and over one-million copies were sold. Many Engineers, Technicians, and Electronics Hobbyists used these books throughout the seventies and eighties.
Significant items on display
- Apple-1 exact operational clone on display and four original Apple-1 computers in collection shown by special request.
- Mark-8
- Altair 8800 low serial number #21
- Commodore 64
See also
- History of Computing
- History of computer science
- Computer museums
- IT History Society
References
North American museums
- Bugbook Historical Computer Museum (Floyd, VA.)
- American Computer Museum (Bozeman, Mont.) – Claims to be the oldest that is currently operating
- Charles Babbage Institute (Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.)
- Computer History Museum (Mountain View, Ca.) – Claims to be the largest
- DigiBarn Computer Museum (Boulder Creek, Ca.)
- iMusée (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
- Infoage Science/History Learning Center (Camp Evans, New Jersey)
- Intel Museum (Santa Clara, Ca.)
- Living Computer Museum (Seattle WA)
- Microsoft Visitor Center (Redmond, Wash.) – ...vision, products, culture, and history of Microsoft.
- Old Computer Museum (Mass.) – Private collection
- Personal Computer Museum (Brantford, Ontario, Canada)
- Rhode Island Computer Museum (North Kingstown, Rhode Island)
- Smithsonian Computer History Collection (Wash. D.C.)
- Goodwill Computer Museum (Austin, Tx.)