"We had the experience, but we missed the meaning.” T. S. Eliot
The University’s History of Computing Collection contains equipment, software, archives, ephemera, oral histories, and videos. It was founded, in Autumn 2007, in order to study historically technological development and innovation and, especially, the relationship between computing technologies and people and society.
One important focus is the development of computing in Wales. We have found that by investigating the local history of computing we are better able to see and try to understand the complicated interplay of technical, social, economic and cultural "causes and effects".
The Collection is also interested in certain specialist areas of computing. The choice of these subjects reflects the interests of members of Swansea University and friends of the Collection. For example, we have an archive of L J Comrie, FRS (1893-1950), a pioneer of numerical methods, which contains notes and his collection of mathematical tables; and we have archives charting the development of theoretical computer science and formal methods for software engineering.
This website provides information about the Collection. It is also research tool to build the Collection, and encourage the interpretation and dissemination of computing history. We hope you find the ideas and reflections here interesting. We hope you will help us build the collection; you are most welcome to contact us.
John V Tucker