1950s

Photos and Videos of Computing at Purdue

The photos and videos on this site have been collected or donated over many years. This includes historical and press photos, phots from personal collections, and photos from sources that are long forgotten. Where known, photo and video credit is noted.

Numerous people had the foresight to capture the daily activity of the people and systems that contributed to the success of the Computing Center and Purdue over the years. These photos and videos are from the collection of George Goble, Dennis Ernst, Tim Lange, Todd Turner, Purdue photographers, local news photographers, and others.

Please cite the original photographer when using any of these photos or videos.

If you have a photo or video that you'd like to share, or if you find corrections, please drop me a note on the Feedback page.

1950s - Tom Chetham at IBM CPC - Chippewa (Purdue Libraries)

1954 - IBM keypunches (?) (Purdue Libraries)

1950s - IBM 402 Accounting Machine (Kenneth King, Vasudeva Pai from IBM) - ENAD (Purdue Libraries)

1955 - Professor A. J. Perlis, head of the computing laboratory, explains the operation of the control console of Purdue’s new “Datatron” digital computer to (L to R) Professor Carl Kossack, Director of the University’s statistical laboratories, President Frederick L. Hovde, and Dean of Engineering, George Hawkins, ’30. (Purdue Alumnus)

1955 - Datatron computer cabinet, Reader, Console, and Tape Perforatror (Purdue Alumus)

1955 - Datatron registers, maintenance panel, and magentic drum (Purdue Alumnus)

1959 - Datatron computer cabinet supervisor console "face" (Purdue Alumnus)

1959 - Scheduling changes being made at the Datatron face (Purdue Alumnus)

1959 - Operator at the Datatron operations console (Purdue Alumnus)

1959 - Datatron, 2 IBM consoles, Flexowriter printer (Purdue Alumnus)

1959 - Schedule data converted to paper tape for class scheduling on the Datatron (Purdue Alumnus)

1959 - Scheduling info converted from paper tape to magnetic tape for input to the Datatron (Purdue Alumnus)

1958 - Gordon Sherman at Datatron console with sheduling paper tape (Purdue Alumnus)

1954 - Dr S.E. Wirt at the Tabulating Machine (Purdue Exponent)

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