March 11, 2010
When computers were big: Help identify this week’s Lost & Found Film
Editor’s Note: The UW Audio Visual Services Materials Library has more than 1,200 reels of film from the late 1940s through the early 1970s, documenting life at the University through telecourses, commercial films and original productions. Some of the short films are easily identifiable, but many more remain mysteries. Who shot these films and why? Can you help answer those questions? Faculty and staff can use the comments field at the end of the story to send ideas. Those outside the University can e-mail filmarc@u.washington.edu.
Remember when computers used to take up entire rooms? Well, this week’s Lost and Found Film takes us back those days, in 1966, and a “Computer Center” somewhere on campus. The action there isn’t too thrilling. We see a man walk up to a machine as tall as he is, open the protective covering and insert a large reel of tape, then start the tape rolling. In fact, we see him do this a number of times, separated by a close-up of the kind of clapboard used for film shots. Later, another man is seen sitting in a chair pushing buttons on another machine.
What Film Archive Specialist Hannah Palin would like to know:
- Where was this Computer Center?
- What kind of machinery, equipment and tape are we seeing in this clip?
- Is there any history of computer development/use here on campus?
- Any information about what kinds of information was being computerized at the time?
Palin learned something from a reader about last week’s film, Homecoming. The reader had grown up near the university in the 1950s and remembered walking around the Greek houses with her family, looking at the decorations and entertainment offered by fraternities and sororities. So, if you have memories of UW computers in the 1960s, log in and post your comment.
