The Digital Virtual
Museum, June 2022 (See
our Corporate Links page for updates.)
We were
contacted by Sandy Mackenzie, a former Digital salesperson who is
working with a museum in Reading, U.K. to provide exhibits in honor of
the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Reading, U.K.
facility, which once employed over 5000. Here is the list of resources
we provided to assist in their efforts.
In the U.S., there
are only a couple museums we're aware of. But there are some
other sources of potential exhibit material we can suggest.
We in DEC Connection are just 4 former employees keeping up our network
- we have no real estate or space for a museum. But here's
what we are aware of:
- The
Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California
- this is about the entire industry, not just Digital. These
days it skews heavily to software, obviously, but the original DEC
museum (in MRO2 Lobby) put together by Gwen Bell went to
them. Then to Boston. Then moved to CA.
- Ken Olsen's
beneficiary was Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. He
was on their board of directors and donated a new Science Building and
all his papers. In 2019, Gordon College transferred all the
collected papers to Harvard Business School Baker Library (press
release).
Here is the link on our website to actual material.
Gordon College probably still has hardware and documentation they don't
know what to do with. We have a contact there, Dan Tymann, VP.
- Part of this
Gordon College activity was a collaboration with PBS that created an
hour-long documentary about Digital and Ken called Digital
Man/Digital World. It's still online at link below.
- The first PBS
showing of Digital_Man/Digital_World was
21 Feb 2012 in Indianapolis - here
is a link to the 57-minute video on their website to watch on your
computer!
-
http://video.wfyi.org/video/2282149336/
-
Gordon Bell has a Digital Cybermuseum - here's the link.
See his Digital Timeline here.
On our website here are several photos of the Olsen
building lobby exhibit, called the Loggia of Technology, and recordings
of speeches given in 2008 at Gordon College's Science Building
dedication. You may know one of our speakers on that
occasion, Rod Sutherland, a talented and enthusiastic DEC Connection
member who I'm betting has been to Reading on a number of
occasions.
- The Town of
Maynard has just erected signage that is permanently installed in front
of the Maynard Mill. They have also added small exhibits
about Digital in the Maynard Library. No
computers, just other stuff. Here is a
link to the
signage exhibit, part of the Town of Maynard's 150th Anniversary
celebration. One panel is dedicated to
Digital. DEC Connection made a contribution toward its
completion. The contact in their Library is Jeremy
Robichaud. Jeremy Robichaud is Head of Reference Services at the
Maynard Public Library: 978-897-1010 x103 jrobichaud@minlib.net
and www.maynardpubliclibrary.org
- There is an
historian in Maynard named David Mark. He has
written 11 articles about the history of Maynard Mill and Digital.
Here is
another link, to David's talk at the Library.
1 1/2 hours! damark51@gmail.com
is his email address (for permissions to use his materials).
- We have a
member, Alan Earls, who has written a book about Digital. You can
see it on our publications page.
- there are
many DEC marketing videos on product introductions, etc.
David Price has 65 loaded onto You Tube. Also the 40th
Anniversary video and DECworld88 and DECville85 on this page.
- The Rhode
Island Computer Museum has a very large collection of DEC
equipment. http://www.ricomputermuseum.org
See
equipment list under Large Systems. They have restored a
PDP-9
with a TC59/TU20 among
others.
Contacts: michael.99.thompson@gmail.com
Michael Thompson, PDP-9 restoration expert
Dan
Berman, RICM Director,
dan@ricomputermuseum.org, (401)
741-6997
There are a
number of hobbyists who built small systems and workstations. There is an
ex-DECcie in Germany named
Reinhold Heuberger.
He's an active PDP-11 hobbyist. Here is
his presentation on YouTube about his 11/23 restoration
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