jmtd → log → Newcastle University Historic Computing

some of our micro computers

Since first writing about my archiving activities in 2012 I've been meaning to write an update on what I've been up to, but I haven't got around to it. This, however, is noteable enough to be worth writing about!

In the last few months I became chair of the Historic Computing Committee at Newcastle University. We are responsible for a huge collection of historic computing artefacts from the University's past, going back to the 1950s, which has been almost single-handedly assembled and curated over the course of decades by the late Roger Broughton, who did much of the work in his retirement.

Segment of IBM/360 mainframe

Sadly, Roger died in 2016.

Recently there has been an upsurge of interest and support for our project, partly as a result of other volunteers stepping in and partly due to the School of Computing moving to a purpose-built building and celebrating its 60th birthday.

We've managed to secure some funding from various sources to purchase proper, museum-grade storage and display cabinets. Although portions of the collection have been exhibited for one-off events, including School open days, this will be the first time that a substantial portion of the collection will be on (semi-)permanent public display.

Amstrad PPC640 portable PC

Things have been moving very quickly recently. I am very happy to announce that the initial public displays will be unveiled as part of the Great Exhibition of the North! Most of the details are still TBC, but if you are interested you can keep an eye on this A History Of Computing events page.

For more about the Historic Computing Committee, cs-history Special Interest Group and related stuff, you can follow the CS History SIG blog, which we will hopefully be updating more often going forward. For the Historic Computing Collection specifically, please see the The Roger Broughton Museum of Computing Artefacts.