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The Computer Museum of America reclamation project

computer-museum.org

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Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project

#41

Post by RetroTechie »

"Currently (spring of 2026) graduate students in the Museum Studies and Archival Studies programs at Claremont Graduate University are working on-site at San Diego State University to create an index of what is in the former Computer Museum of America collection.

This research program is being underwritten by an anonymous donor, and will continue into the summer."

Wow... undoubtedly much stuff that's been collecting dust for decades, and they haven't even taken inventory of what's there? Or (assuming the effort described above went ahead) no result posted on the website.

Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project

#42

Post by cbm-vic-20 »

detourdog wrote: post #19
rbanffy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all computer museums fail - there are a few that have endured. The one in Mountain View, for instance, is a direct continuation of the one from Boston. A lot of very nice computer collections are parts of bigger ones in larger, less specialised, museums. It’s rare for museums to keep artefacts operational. The ones that still work are usually treated as the big attraction because they demand attention and mainten…

There is Large Scale Systems Museum in Western PA. https://www.mact.io/ Rhode Island Computer Museum https://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home

Another shout-out for Rhode Island Computer Museum. They're very "hands-on", and just about any time you drop in you may be recruited to help chase down a problem with a PDP-9 or be compelled to play a game of O.G. Spacewar.

Their "computer crypt" is something to behold, too.

Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project

#43

Post by JoeAltmaier »

Cool! The pictures remind me of my business partner Tom's basement - full of every computer and device he ever owned since the 1970's. But his are more orderly, sorted and filed and often in the original packaging. It'll be a great contribution to some museum one day.

Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project

#44

Post by cml123 »

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

It amazes me how difficult it is to keep computer museums alive. Like Boston used to have a great computer museum in the 1980s back when Boston had a computer industry. I guess though it is hard to keep a PDP-10 alive today and it's not impressive to kids today to play LUNAR LANDER on a VT-102.

Some might surprise you. I brought my Altair over to a friend's house and his clever 5th grade son was enthralled by it. I explained binary numbers and how to convert from binary to octal. Then I taught him some basic 8080 assembly instructions and he was entering his own programs on the front panel shortly later. I wrote out a basic program for adding two 8 bit integers and without my explanation, he figured out converting decimal octal and chose some numbers you might expect from a 5th grader, like adding 6 and 7, and choosing two numbers that summed to 67 in decimal.

Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project

#45

Post by cml123 »

justin66 wrote: post #37
AdamN wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His sister (at his behest??) decided to lean into a smaller number of projects for his money. It does seem like a miss that they couldn't keep it going. There's enough money in Seattle that it should have been doable with the right charismatic leader and fundraising.

> His sister (at his behest??) decided to lean into a smaller number of projects for his money. And didn't do any of the obvious things one might have done if they wanted to preserve the museum's existence, like finding a buyer or starting a foundation. She did the easy thing and scrapped it for parts. (IIRC she was the executor of his will, trustee of his estate, and the CEO of the company he left most everything to…

I'm bitter about the outcome too, but doesn't it seem like Paul could have _easily_ made a plan for the museum's continued existence or the donation of the computers into worthy hands? I can't see any scenario where the billionaire cofounder of Microsoft wouldn't have had those plans had he wanted them..so I can only conclude he _didn't_ care materially about the importance of the computers separate from himself.

Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project

#46

Post by contingencies »

decide1000 wrote: post #11

In the Netherlands there is a computer museum with a huge collection. The computers can be used by anyone. Really a great experience for kids these days and adults. https://www.homecomputermuseum.nl/en/

Conveniently located in outer Eindhoven!

Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project

#47

Post by justin66 »

cml123 wrote: post #45
justin66 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His sister (at his behest??) decided to lean into a smaller number of projects for his money. And didn't do any of the obvious things one might have done if they wanted to preserve the museum's existence, like finding a buyer or starting a foundation. She did the easy thing and scrapped it for parts. (IIRC she was the executor of his will, trustee of his estate, and the CEO of the company he left most everything to…

I'm bitter about the outcome too, but doesn't it seem like Paul could have _easily_ made a plan for the museum's continued existence or the donation of the computers into worthy hands? I can't see any scenario where the billionaire cofounder of Microsoft wouldn't have had those plans had he wanted them..so I can only conclude he _didn't_ care materially about the importance of the computers separate from himself.

I agree that it would have been trivially easy for him to give the museum a long-term future. I wouldn't jump to any conclusions about what he cared about.
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