American Computer & Robotics Museum

About

The American Computer & Robotics Museum (ACRM, formerly the American Computer Museum) is a museum of the history of computing, communications, artificial intelligence and robotics that is located in Bozeman, Montana, United States. The museum's mission is "to explore the past and imagine the future of the Information Age through thought-provoking exhibits, innovative storytelling, and the bold exchange of ideas". The American Computer & Robotics Museum was founded by George and Barbara Keremedjiev as a non-profit organization in May 1990 in Bozeman, Montana. It is likely the oldest extant museum dedicated to the history of computers in the world. The museum's artifacts trace over 4,000 years of computing history and information technology. George Keremedjiev died in November 2018, but his wife Barbara, the museum board, and the museum's executive director continue working toward his goals to "collect, preserve, interpret, and display the artifacts and history of the information age." The museum has several permanent exhibits on display. The Benchmarks of the Information Age provides an overview of information technology from roughly 1860 B.C.E. with the development of ancient writing systems up to 1976 C.E. with the Apple I personal computer. Another significant exhibit is the NASA Apollo program, including NASA artifacts on loan from the National Air and Space Museum, such as an Apollo Guidance Computer and a watch worn on the Moon by Apollo 15 Commander David Scott, as well as the last surviving mainframe from the Apollo 11 mission, a UNIVAC 418-II. Another exhibit includes a comprehensive collection of early personal computers like the Altair 8800, IMSAI 8080, Commodore PET, Sol-20, Apple II, Apple III, Apple Lisa, Apple Macintosh, KIM-1, and SYM-1. The museum has several more exhibits detailing Enigma codebreaking during World War II, neural computing and artificial intelligence, office and communications technology, robotics and automation with Hollywood artifacts, video games, and the future of computing with an eye toward quantum computing. The museum's current special exhibit is the Vintage Mac Muse

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.