[SIGCIS-Members] Silicon City

[Kim Tracy]

Bell Labs did start in 1925 in NYC on West Street as part of Western
Electric and moved to Murray Hill, NJ in the early 1940s.  A number of
folks that I worked with started at the West Street location.  So, some of
the computing work was done there but much more after that in NJ.

--Kim


--Kim Tracy
tracy at cs.stanford.edu

On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 1:57 PM, Evan Koblentz <evan at snarc.net> wrote:

> Would also like to encourage others to go, perhaps most especially to
>> start a conversation about how we can imagine computer histories. I
>> attended yesterday with a colleague and left feeling dismayed--the
>> sticky fingers of IBM (a major donor for the exhibit) appeared to be all
>> over it (at one point I openly laughed at some wall text that described
>> Apple as a "plucky startup" but insisting IBM /really/ drove the tech
>> revolution). There are a few special, very sincere parts--the 1964
>> Worlds Fair dome, the focus on NYC's role in electronic art and music
>> (Cage, Bell Labs, etc) but otherwise reads like the history of computing
>> told through the history of IBM--which feels strange given that there's
>> no special effort to frame IBM as a /regionalist /company.
>>
>> Would love to stoke a conversation, even off list, about other's
>> impressions...feel free to drop me an email.
>>
>
>
> I'm planning to go soon.
>
> NYHS asked for my assistance several months ago. I provided a lot of
> feedback about NY computer history beyond Big Blue. They said I'd be
> credited as a consultant, so I am disappointed to hear that the exhibition
> is basically just an IBM gig.
>
> I hope that didn't claim Bell Labs as a NY entity. Statue of Liberty is in
> * New Jersey * waters, the "New York" Giants and Jets both play in New
> Jersey, now Bell Labs? Note to myself .... go see the exhibit firsthand
> before getting judgmental. :)
>
> In 1966 -- a decade * before * IBM started telling customers that real
> computers are made out of metal by east coast corporations, not plastic by
> west coast hippies -- Steven Grey began publishing the "Amateur Computer
> Society" newsletter from his home in Manhattan. This was before the Mother
> of All Demos, Xerox PARC, and the People's Computer Company.
>
> Upon starting his newsletter, Gray contacted IBM to see about funding. IBM
> replied with a very nice letter saying no. The letter is signed by Thomas
> Watson Jr. -- there are copies online, but the original is at the (Wall,
> N.J.) InfoAge Science Center where I run the computer wing.
>
> Tens years later, when Creative Computing, Byte, DDJ, etc. all emerged,
> and the photocopied ACS newsletter closed, IBM invited Gray to lecture
> about this "new" idea of microcomputing -- in the Thomas Watson Research
> Center.
>
> I'm just saying. :)
>
>
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