[SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

Thu Jul 23 14:13:03 PDT 2020

There might be a parallel line of inquiry within folklore. I know there has
been some work on the folklore of the office and the folklore of the
internet. I can't imagine either one lacking references to coffee.

Best,
Michael Scroggins

On Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 6:47 AM James Cortada <jcortada at umn.edu> wrote:

> Everyone has been wonderful and generous with your thoughts and leads.  It
> seems you are as excited about coffee as everyone else in the computer
> world.  It is becoming clearer to me that there are certain "material
> culture" issues that can guide us to understanding the world of computing.
> Besides coffee mugs, lapel pins, postcards and all that stuff we would get
> at COMDEX, for example, just opens up all kinds of avenues for the study of
> computing culture.  And yes, it seems every industry loved its coffee and
> other trinkets.  Thank you for your thoughts, I have a lot to ponder.  Jim
>
> On Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 1:43 PM mike at willegal.net <mike at willegal.net>
> wrote:
>
>>  I can relate to some of these comments.
>>
>> Cisco, where I have employed since 1997, used to have coolers with a
>> large variety of free beverages available to all employees.  I had one
>> friend that said that when the free drinks went away, so would he, and he
>> did leave not so long after the free drinks disappeared.
>>
>> I also used to fill my cup directly from the outflow from the old style
>> brewing machines.
>>
>> At one point Encore Computer, charged employees a quarter a cup for
>> coffee on the honor system.  Eventually the coffee became free to
>> employees, but management didn’t tell us and they used the funds to sponsor
>> a year end holiday party.
>>
>> Here is a story. More than 15 years ago, I fairly frequently travelled
>> back and forth between Boston and San Jose on the “Nerd Bird."  Over time,
>> I had established the habit of staying on east coast time, even when out in
>> California.  Visiting San Jose, during the intense effort of a new hardware
>> bring up, the team stayed and worked through a weekend.  Sunday morning, I
>> woke up, as usual, about 4 or 5 AM local time.  Not having anything to do
>> in the hotel room, I decided to go into the office and get a head start on
>> the days efforts.  I arrived in the large, dark and apparently empty,
>> office building at something like 5 AM that Sunday morning.  With the
>> lights out, no one in sight,  I found that the coffee machine was in the
>> middle of brewing a fresh pot of coffee.  It was a very eerie thing.
>> Eventually, I ran across a guy from another team that had come into the
>> office early that morning and needed his cup of “Joe.”
>>
>> Eventually I had to give up on all caffeinated beverages, as I often
>> didn’t drink them during weekends and would then end up with a splitting
>> headache on Sunday.
>>
>>
>> -Mike Willegal
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jul 21, 2020, at 1:08 PM, Marc Weber <marc at webhistory.org> wrote:
>>
>> Mugs are also well represented in our collection at the Computer History
>> Museum… you’ll get 470 hits when you search on “mug” in our online
>> catalog
>> <https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=mug&f=physicalobject>.
>> In fact we have essentially stopped collecting them as a result.
>> We also have a Peet’s Dash Button
>> <https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102777941>.
>> Best, Marc
>>
>> Marc Weber <http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/>  |
>> marc at webhistory.org  |   +1 415 282 6868
>> Curatorial Director, Internet History Program
>> Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043
>> computerhistory.org/nethistory  |  Co-founder, Web History Center and
>> Project
>>
>> On Jul 21, 2020, at 09:44, Henry E Lowood <lowood at stanford.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Jim,
>> You might want to browse through the Doug Menuez photography collection
>> at Stanford.  About 10,000 of the images are online (out of about
>> 200-250,000).  He captures quite a bit of the culture in companies like
>> Apple, NeXT, Adobe, etc., mostly 1980s.  I am sure you will find many
>> coffee mugs there!
>> Here is a link to the online exhibit created from the images in this
>> collection:
>> https://exhibits.stanford.edu/menuez
>> Hit “browse” to see a selection of companies represented.
>> Henry
>>
>> Henry Lowood, PhD
>> Harold C. Hohbach Curator, History of Science & Technology Collections;
>> Curator, Film & Media Collections
>> HASG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
>> Stanford University Libraries
>> Stanford CA 94305-6066
>> PH: 650-723-4602
>> EM: lowood at stanford.edu
>>
>> *From:* Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org> *On Behalf Of *Kidwell,
>> Peggy
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, July 21, 2020 4:09 AM
>> *To:* Staiti, Alana <StaitiA at si.edu>; James Cortada <jcortada at umn.edu>;
>> members at sigcis.org
>> *Subject:* Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing
>>
>> I would add to Alana's fine list:
>>
>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1867086 (a
>> photograph)
>>
>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/NMAH.AC.0324_ref460 (a
>> cartoon - though not much coffee shown)
>>
>> Best -
>>
>> Peggy Kidwell
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Staiti,
>> Alana <StaitiA at si.edu>
>> *Sent:* Monday, July 20, 2020 3:53 PM
>> *To:* James Cortada <jcortada at umn.edu>; members at sigcis.org <
>> members at sigcis.org>
>> *Subject:* Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing
>>
>> *External Email - Exercise Caution*
>> Hi Jim,
>>
>> The National Museum of American History has some mugs in the computing
>> collection featuring company names. Some include fun little sayings. See
>> links below for a few examples. I'm not sure I can elaborate on coffee
>> culture though! We are still working remotely but if you have specific
>> questions about any of these or other objects I'd be happy to do whatever
>> digging I can do from afar, for the time being.
>>
>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281495
>> <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281495&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955058625&sdata=2yjToxvJg097T7YaIu%2F3SkDRq6UBv%2BYIWinjh68PGqQ%3D&reserved=0>
>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281135
>> <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281135&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955058625&sdata=LsCiXe%2FDc9dbbydoHCscFyN8iDNTLcnhL96cvFJ4QHU%3D&reserved=0>
>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281136
>> <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281136&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955068616&sdata=rckja4adawNZnJdJu1f10AplLLTq4zBHSuX1lRVuMsY%3D&reserved=0>
>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281137
>> <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281137&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955068616&sdata=if2AKMU52J9PU8oO22NTlBtJJeIDyz%2FYkgwlWyWOtRg%3D&reserved=0>
>>
>> Be well,
>> Alana
>>
>> *Alana Staiti* (she/her/hers)
>> Curator of the History of Computers and Information Sciences
>> National Museum of American History
>> Smithsonian Institution
>> staitia at si.edu
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of James
>> Cortada <jcortada at umn.edu>
>> *Sent:* Monday, July 20, 2020 3:41 PM
>> *To:* members at sigcis.org <members at sigcis.org>
>> *Subject:* [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing
>>
>> *External Email - Exercise Caution*
>>
>> The IT community of users, programmers, vendors, etc have for decades had
>> a reputation for being extensive consumers of coffee. In some parts of the
>> IT ecosystem, especially among those who work odd hours, such as
>> programmers, computer operators, and vendor field engineers.  I am studying
>> the corporate ephemera of this industry and its cultural attachments, such
>> as coffee cups and what they tell us about computing.  Do any of you have
>> any information, ephemera, or sources and citations on this specific issue
>> of coffee and computing?  I can get many industry folks, such as IBM
>> retirees, to wax eloquently on the subject in their private FB accounts,
>> but that is not enough.  Corporate culture is tough to study.  Thanks in
>> advance for your help.  Jim
>> --
>> James W. Cortada
>> Senior Research Fellow
>> Charles Babbage Institute
>> University of Minnesota
>> jcortada at umn.edu
>> 608-274-6382
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>> Marc Weber <http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/>  |
>> marc at webhistory.org  |   +1 415 282 6868
>> Internet History Program Curatorial Director, Computer History Museum
>>
>> 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043
>> computerhistory.org/nethistory
>> Co-founder, Web History Center and Project, webhistory.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion
>> list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member
>> posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list
>> archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and
>> you can change your subscription options at
>> http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> James W. Cortada
> Senior Research Fellow
> Charles Babbage Institute
> University of Minnesota
> jcortada at umn.edu
> 608-274-6382
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion
> list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member
> posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list
> archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and
> you can change your subscription options at
> http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
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