Finding aid for the Records of the Electronic Computer Project: West Building Storage

Table of Contents

Summary Information

Biographical/Historical note

Scope and Contents note

Arrangement note

Administrative Information

Related Materials

Controlled Access Headings

Bibliography

Collection Inventory

Files

Summary Information

Repository

Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Historical Studies-Social Science Library, Einstein Drive, Princeton, NJ 08540

Creator

Electronic Computer Project.

Title

Records of the Electronic Computer Project (ECP): West Building Storage

ID

ECPWBS

Date [inclusive]

1931-1958 and undated

Date [bulk]

Bulk, 1953-1955

Extent

4.875 linear feet (2 document boxes; 5 half-size doument boxes; 4 card file boxes (12.25" l. x 8.5" w. x 5.25" h.))

Language

English

Abstract

The Electronic Computer Project, led by John von Neumann, was based at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1945 to 1960. The records of the ECP: West Building Storage consist of experiment data, in-house and vendor publications relating to component parts, blueprints, punch cards, diagrams, and stock books of part orders.

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Biographical/Historical note

In 1933, John von Neumann became a Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in the School of Mathematics. By the mid-1940s, Prof. von Neumann began concentrating on computing work and he was trying to raise support and secure space for building an "electronic computing machine." Prof. von Neumann had to obtain permission from IAS to build something on premises because its commitment had been, and still is, firmly planted in the theoretical. Also, monetary support for the Electronic Computer Project (ECP) had to be found. While RCA Corporation was very involved in the beginning stages of the ECP, they did not contribute financially. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) was involved in other aspects, though like RCA, was not financially supportive. While IAS certainly funded some of the Project with several monetary donations, staff and housing for the Computer, government agencies such as the U.S. Atomic Energy Committee (AEC), United States Office of Naval Research (ONR), and various branches of the United States Army, provided the majority of financial support for the Project.

The Project was undertaken as a part of the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study. It was begun on the IAS campus in 1945 and in January 1952 culminated with the completion of a machine. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) machine built at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia was a precursor to the Institute Computer, as was the Electronic Discrete Variable Arithmetic Computer (EDVAC). Prof. von Neumann contributed much to the design of EDVAC. Herman H. Goldstine, one of the Engineers on the team that constructed the ENIAC, eventually came to the Institute to help Prof. von Neumann. Some of the principal Engineers on the Project were Julian Bigelow, Gerald Estrin, Willis Ware, James Pomerene, Sung Yuen Wong, Norman Phillips, Ralph Slutz and Hans J. Maehly.

Arthur Burks, Goldstine and von Neumann drafted the first version of “Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument” in June 1946 and multiple subsequent reports were written, many of which are represented here in the collection. While the Institute machine was not formally dedicated until 1952, calculations had been taking place on it since the summer of 1951. The computer was fully functional until 1960, though it was primarily used by Princeton University towards the end, and was eventually deposited in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History where it remains today.

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Scope and Contents note

The Records of the Electronic Computer Project:West Building Storage consists of engineering files pertaining to the ECP and computer science. More specifically, these files include: operational guides, punch cards, schematics, wiring drawings and diagrams. A focus of the collection is the mechanical component parts of the Institute Computer, including the ordering, installation, and monitoring (recorded observations) of these parts. Observations of the Dumont tubes include photographs. Files also include a copy of "Instruction Manual: Teledeltos outprinter" (17 July 1951) by Willis H. Ware. The work of Nils Aall Barricelli is represented in this collection. Manuals and publications relating to component parts chiefly represent two companies: IBM Corporation and Teletype Corporation.

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Arrangement note

Original order of the material in the collection was maintained, with the exception of obvious misfiling. Boxes 1-2 contain ECP engineers' files, Boxes 3-7 contain technical documentation relating to component parts published by IBM Corporation and Teletype Corporation, Boxes 8-9 are stock books of part orders, and Boxes 10-11 are Barricelli key cards.

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Administrative Information

Conditions Governing Access note

The Records of the Electronic Computer Project (ECP):West Building Storage collection is open for research, without restrictions under the Institute for Advanced Study Archives thirty-year policy.

Conditions Governing Use note

Photocopying from the material will be done for a copy fee from the Archives staff. Researchers are responsible for obtaining copyright permission to use the material from the collection for publication.

Immediate Source of Acquisition note

The Records of the Electronic Computer Project (ECP):West Building Storage were likely originally taken from the ECP building, with some material possibly coming from John von Neumann’s office, moved to another storage area, and eventually deposited in the Archives in the mid-1980s. These boxes had not been processed for many years. They represent a portion of material that is left from the one time an actual product was built on the premises of the Institute campus: the Institute Computer. Once processed, this collection fit into 2 document boxes and 5 half-size document boxes mostly of engineering files and technical documentation relating to the mechanical component parts of the Institute Computer, and 4 card file boxes of punch cards and stock books of part orders. After processing, the collection was cataloged in the Horizon database under #-4021-#4035, #5082-#5093, and #5096-#5104.

Processing Information note

The collection was processed by Lisa R. Coats. Processing and cataloging were completed by May 2003. The finding aid was written by Erica Mosner in March 2009, with reference to text produced by Lisa R. Coats for another ECP collection. The processing included some cleaning, removal of rusty fasteners, placing all documents in acid-free folders, relabeling the files, removing larger maps and blueprints to put in a map box, and reboxing into acid-free document boxes or cubic boxes. The material was then cataloged in the Horizon database.

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Related Materials

Related Archival Materials note

This collection relates to the primary ECP collection, Records of the Electronic Computer Project, and likely came from the same location (the ECP building), possibly even at the same time, but somehow the two got separated. The Records of the Electronic Computer Project consists of correspondence, memos, reports, patents, contracts, operational guides, blueprints, punch cards, wiring drawings and diagrams that pertain to the ECP, computer science and some of the Engineers on the project. There are logbooks of meteorological studies done on the Institute Computer and other logbooks that contain memory notes, engineering and general arithmetic logs for the Computer. The bulk of the collection spans 7 linear feet comprised of 12 document boxes and 3 cubic boxes. There is one legal-sized folder of ECP employee agreements. The larger maps & blueprints were separated and placed in Map Box #1 with memos to files. While the dates span 1940-1967, the bulk of the material is from 1945-1955. The collection contains material primarily in English, but there is a lecture in French and a paper in German.

There is also material from the Director’s Office that has significant correspondence related to the ECP. These boxes were processed, cataloged and are located next to the two other ECP related collections in the Archives.

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Controlled Access Headings

Corporate Name(s)

• International Business Machines Corporation.
• Teletype Corporation.

Personal Name(s)

• Ware, Willis H.
• Barricelli, Nils Aall, 1912-

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Bibliography

Aspray, William. John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990.

Bigelow, Julian. “Computer Development at the Institute for Advanced Study”, in A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century by N. Metropolis, J. Howlett and Gian-Carlo Rota. Academic Press, Inc., 1980: 291-310.

Dyson, George B. Darwin Among the Machines: the Evolution of Global Intelligence. Cambridge: Perseus, 1997.

Goldstine, Herman H. The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.

Oppenheimer, J. Robert. Institute for Advanced Study, “Report of the Director, 1948-1953.”

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Collection Inventory