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Jim Scherrer, head of the "Compuseum" in Philadelphia, recently had a wonderful Zoom program on Burroughs,
<u>concentrating</u> on the Paoli plant in the suburbs. I believe he is on this Listserv. He got in touch with a lot of Burroughs alumni, some of whom may be able to help you. </div>
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https:\\thecompuseum.org</div>
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William S. Burroughs, the Beat author, had little to do with his namesake, the inventor. He claimed (without documentation, because he didn't have to!), that Wall St. financiers looted the inheritance, and he got very little. In one of his writings, he does
mention an interesting connection between his heroin addiction and the senior Burroughs' invention of a specific device, which was the key to the success of his adding machine, in comparison to those produced by other companies. It's a bit of a stretch. If
anyone is interested I can discuss it off-line.</div>
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Best,</div>
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Paul Ceruzzi</div>
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www.substack.com/@paulceruzzi</div>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of James Cortada via Members <members@lists.sigcis.org><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, July 22, 2025 3:15 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Jeffrey Yost <yostx003@umn.edu><br>
<b>Cc:</b> Sigcis <members@sigcis.org>; Amanda Wick <abwick@umn.edu><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Burroughs Corporation in South Africa</font>
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<div dir="ltr">. . . and for the rest of you reading Jeff's note, the corporate records are so comprehensive that when I was starting to do research on the history of information technology companies, I seriously considered writing a history of Burroughs, because
not only was the firm important, but all its papers were in one place. Doesn't get any better than that for an historian. I was working for IBM at the time and chose instead to write histories of IBM. Burroughs Corporation remains a huge opportunity for
an historian. If I was younger and lived in Minneapolis I would be all over this topic. Models of how to write such corporate histories are all over the place. Jim</div>
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<div dir="ltr" class="x_gmail_attr">On Tue, Jul 22, 2025 at 2:07 PM Jeffrey Yost via Members <<a href="mailto:members@lists.sigcis.org">members@lists.sigcis.org</a>> wrote:<br>
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<div>Hi Bernard,</div>
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<div>Interesting sounding project, having the Burroughs Collection here, and having read William S. Burroughs' books, including <i>Junkie
</i>to <i>Naked Lunch, </i>while I was in college, I often wondered about him and his corporate family. Yes, Burroughs Corporation was quite active in South Africa. CBI has the Burroughs Corporate Records Collection which details a tremendous number of aspects
of the company, a really extensive corporate collection, from the 1880s American Arithmometer days in St. Louis, to the move of HQ to Detroit and renaming as Burrough Adding Machine and later Burroughs Corporation (and expanding around the world including
South Africa and elsewhere in Global South as well as Europe...). The collection is over 600 boxes, spans all functional areas, and is divided into 111 Series or Sub Collections. There are collections on International, on Plants, etc. The general statement
on the collection and links to the 111 Sub Collections is below. We had a digitization project a quarter century ago and did detailed cataloguing of 500 select Burroughs images and put them online on University Libraries UMedia of UMN, but I don't think there
are any of Burroughs' South Africa among those 500, actually I think it came to 520. UMedia is Univ. of Minnesota wide, the 520 Burroughs images (by keyword searching the combo of Burrough and Still Images) are here <a href="https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/search?facets%5Btypes%5D%5B%5D=Still+Image&q=burroughs" originalsrc="https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/search?facets%5Btypes%5D%5B%5D=Still+Image&q=burroughs" target="_blank">UMedia
Burroughs Corporation photos</a></div>
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<div>We have many, many thousands of additional Burroughs photos so we might have some in the sub series that are relevant in either print or negatives. While not digitized, the Finding Aid for each sub series is processed down to the folder level, so it should
list if photos exist based on subject area. There are also many illustrations of corporate facilities, line drawings on letterhead and other material.</div>
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<div>One thing regarding potential cultural influences you might find interesting is Burroughs Farms, which was a large recreation wooded area with lakes West of Detroit, hundreds of acres of land where the corporation rewarded workers and their families--swimming,
hiking, horseback riding....probably archery as well (all in corporate paternalistic fashion). I've wondered if William S. Burroughs spent any time there? (William S. Burroughs killed his wife Joan Vollner in Mexico City in 1951 in an archery "accident.")</div>
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<div><a href="https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/3/resources/222" originalsrc="https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/3/resources/222" target="_blank">Collection: Burroughs Corporation records | University of Minnesota Archival Finding Aids</a></div>
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<div>Also, feel free to contact the CBI Archivist and Curator Amanda Wick if wanting additional info on anything. Amanda's email is
<a href="mailto:abwick@umn.edu" target="_blank">abwick@umn.edu</a></div>
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<div>Best, Jeff</div>
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<div><b><font color="#222222">* * * * * *</font></b></div>
<div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><b>Jeffrey Yost, Ph.D. </b></div>
<div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><b>Director, Charles Babbage Institute for Computing, Information & Culture</b></div>
<div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><b>Research Professor, University of Minnesota</b><b></b></div>
<div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><b> </b></div>
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<div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><b style="color:rgb(56,118,29)"><a href="https://press.jhu.edu/books/title/12804/just-code" originalsrc="https://press.jhu.edu/books/title/12804/just-code" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)"><i>Just Code: Power, Inequality
and the Political Economy of IT</i> (Johns Hopkins U. Press out in Nov. 2025 co-edited w/ Gerardo Con Diaz)</a> </b></div>
<div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><b style="color:rgb(32,33,36)"><a href="https://amzn.to/3gqe4R6" originalsrc="https://amzn.to/3gqe4R6" target="_blank"><font color="#cc0000"><i>Making IT Work: A History of the Computer Services Industry</i> (MIT Press)</font></a></b><b style="color:rgb(56,118,29)"></b></div>
<div><b><font color="#cc0000"><a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/series/studies-computing-and-culture" originalsrc="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/series/studies-computing-and-culture" target="_blank">Studies in Computing and Culture book series, Johns
Hopkins U. Press</a> </font></b><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">Co-Editor (w/ Con Diaz)</span></div>
<div><font color="#222222"><b>PI, NSF-funded CBI project "Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and Privacy."</b></font></div>
<div><a href="https://www.blockchainandsociety.com/" originalsrc="https://www.blockchainandsociety.com/" target="_blank"><font color="#38761d"><b>Blockchain & Society</b></font></a><font color="#38761d"><b> (crit. inq. essays & resources)</b></font> (Founder/Leader)</div>
<div>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b><i><a href="https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces" originalsrc="https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces" target="_blank"><font color="#000000">Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing and Culture</font></a> </i></b><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">Co-Editor-in-Chief
(w/ Amanda Wick)</span></p>
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<div dir="ltr" class="x_gmail_attr">On Tue, Jul 22, 2025 at 12:58 PM Bernard Geoghegan via Members <<a href="mailto:members@lists.sigcis.org" target="_blank">members@lists.sigcis.org</a>> wrote:<br>
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Hey colleagues,
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<div dir="auto">A shot in the dark: Does anyone have a handy reference or link or reproduction to visual illustrations related to Burroughs Corporation activities in South Africa, Morocco (a very long shot indeed), or Africa more generally? (Apparently they
were quite active in South Africa.) I’m working on something related to writer William S. Burroughs’ indirect links to high tech via the family biz, esp in the Global South. There’s great visuals of Burroughs Corporation around North American activity, like
SAGE and NORAD, I haven’t seen much that is from the wider world. Bonus points for visuals with great design or architectural components.</div>
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<div dir="auto">Best wishes, Bernard </div>
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<span class="x_gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br>
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<div>James W. Cortada</div>
<div>Senior Research Fellow</div>
<div>Charles Babbage Institute</div>
<div>University of Minnesota</div>
<div><a href="mailto:jcortada@umn.edu" target="_blank">jcortada@umn.edu</a></div>
<div>608-274-6382</div>
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