Computers/Information Technology

This is the home page for the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), an American organization interested in studying technology in the past and its relationship to culture, politics, economics, art and society. The site has three subsections: one provides information about the organization, its membership and leadership, informing visitors how to sign up to become a member, and displaying updated details about prizes, awards and meetings. Two, covers the publications of the organization, specifically the SHOT newletter and booklet series as well as Technology and Culture, published by SHOT and the Johns Hopkins University Press. The latter is available on line only to subscribers. The last subsection, three, lists materials (mostly on the Web) of interest to historians of technology, such as syllabi from history of technology courses and the sites of other institutions dedicated to the history of technology.

This text only, one-page site provides a list of links to Web materials on prominent women in the history of digital technology. There are approximately over 40 women listed, beginning with the nineteenth-century mathematician Ada Lovelace. Some of the entries, such as the entry on Lovelace, list multiple Web sites containing their biographical information. At the bottom of the page are a few links to other sites on women in computer science past and present. There are no images or biographical material on this site, just links.

This site serves as the home page for both the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine and the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine at the University of Manchester. Most of the site's content relates to the physical center and its people and students. There are faculty and student lists, event listings, programs and courses, as well as links to the libraries of the University of Manchester and the five museums having to do with science and technology near the university. Web visitors interested in the history of science and technology may find the online projects on the site useful: one is a catalog of historical scientific objects held by the university.

This site, established by a collector and written from a collector's point of view (and written for a general audience), examines mainly mechanical calculating machines. A brief history with several photographs describes the origin and development of the calculating machine from its invention by Blaise Pascal to the twentieth century. There is a classification scheme (7 rough types) and photographs of representative models, as well as 6 classic advertisements for calculating machines from the 1930s to the 1950s. Short essays contain several other photographs of machines. In addition, an applet lets you simulate the operation of a 1885 Felt &Tarrant "Comptometer" adding machine. An extensive list of links (over 40 entries) takes the visitor to other sites on the history of calculating machines, and a bibliography lists important printed works on the subject.

This is the home page for Oxford University's Museum of the History of Science. An overview provides a sense of the museum's collection, and a paragraph describes its history (and the history of the building it is housed in) since 1683. There are seven excellent online exhibits with numerous graphics and photographs, including pieces on the history of photography, mathematics and astronomy. All are composed for a lay audience. For researchers, a remarkable searchable database of over 13,000 objects allows visitors to find and view artifacts in the museum's collection. These objects span the entire history of science and technology, and many of them are extremely rare. Another section of the site features some of the best portraits, instruments and illustrations in the archive.

This site contains an annotated and well maintained listing of web resources related to science and technology, organized by category. Links are also made to websites for a variety of related publications. Syllabi submitted by professors from different universities are collected. There is also a student division of 4S, and information regarding it is available.

This University of Virginia site contains one of Alexander Graham Bell's notebooks (1875-1876) from a critical phase in the invention of the telephone. The site primarily consists of about 100 quality images of diagrams from Bell's notebook. There are also data entries and brief notes (transcribed by the editor) available. Most of the experiments listed deal with electricity, magnetism and related metallurgic tests. Various circuits and electrical switches are explored in different configurations. While the site does not contain biographical material, it provides an interesting glimpse into the work of one of America's great inventors.

This small museum in Bozeman, Montana contains artifacts from and exhibits on the history of computing and the mathematics that have made this technology possible. The online exhibit is relatively small, located to photographs; the site contains about 20 photographs of their exhibits and a series of photographs of computer innovators who have received a "Hall of Fame" award from the museum and its associated institutions. Visitors to the Compuseum's Web site are encouraged to visit the actual museum.

Alan Turning (1912-1954) was a pioneering mathematician and philosopher of the mind who most famously worked on breaking Nazi codes and presaged developments in artificial intelligence and computer technology. This site conveys Turning's biography, providing a timeline and short prospectus of Turning's life. There is also a scrapbook that includes many photographs of Turning, diagrams of his mathematics and logic, and a large glossary of related historical terms and context. In the scrapbook, you will find a discussion of the code-breaking effort in England in the second World War and the techniques used by Turing and others in detail. Photographs of the locations and machines involved are also included, as are links to other sites with related historical and contemporary material.