Archives of IT

📢 🙌 We've been awarded a £97,571 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. ✳️ The Unlocking Our Digital Heritage project will redevelop the website and create an AI-powered 'Ask the Archive' portal. 🙏 A huge thanks to #NationalLottery players! #HeritageFund ➡️ archivesit.org.uk/archives-of-...

👩‍💻 We're celebrating Ada Lovelace Day – honoring the achievements of women in science, tech, engineering, and maths – by sharing our YouTube playlist focusing on Women in STEM. 🙌 A true honour to the world's first computer programmer. #AdaLovelaceDay #WomenInStem 📽️ www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

👩‍💻 Three years ago we published our research into the history of Human-Computer Interaction. An in-depth report, funded by the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists' Charity, examined the contribution UK pioneers have made over the past 75 years. Read more: archivesit.org.uk/human-comput...

🤖 In 2017 Google’s researchers published "Attention Is All You Need", introducing the Transformer, a revolutionary AI architecture using attention mechanisms. Learn more AI history in Dr Andrew Rogoyski's interview: archivesit.org.uk/interviews/d... #EYAArchitecture @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

In 2013 Mandy Chessell at IBM created the Data Reservoir Architecture, later the Data Lake Architecture, showing how to manage 'big data' with governance. More about her ground breaking work with Egeria in this oral history youtu.be/1d-fTVsydDM?... #EYAArchitecture @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

Ross Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering at Cambridge and Edinburgh shaped the field, building systems resilient to malice, error, and chance. Watch his oral-history interview to discover the history of cybersecurity youtu.be/jkd-xp4xzlw?... #EYAArchitecture @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

In her recent interview with AIT Dr Nicola Hodson, Chair of IBM UK & Ireland, talks about how she's working with the government on its industrial strategy including the development of quantum to build hybrid cloud, AI and quantum infrastructure as part of the UK tech ecosystem. youtu.be/KIIn_rqec94

Check out this clip from our interview with historian of computer art Catherine Mason on how in the '70s pioneers in the field were a niche of a niche and had to earn the respect of computer technicians to work on their expensive mainframe machines, often working late at night. youtu.be/AAsd3xy3FHg

💳 In the mid-1990s Tim joined BACS as Head of Services. BACS, the UK's critical direct-debit operation, was bank-owned and he updated its ageing systems architecture. Today Visa owns BACS. Find out more in his oral history interview buff.ly/Khk1C9o #EYAArchitecture @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

Thank you to the wonderful primary school students who attended the STEAM Fair at Our Lady’s in Berkshire today, showing such curiosity & enthusiasm. Our CEO Tola Sargeant & trustee Tim Gregory thoroughly enjoyed exploring Archives of IT with you, sharing the stories of amazing tech leaders. 🚀

Happy International Archives Day! 🥳 We are Archives of IT, recording and sharing oral history interviews with anglophone computing pioneers and tech leaders for the past decade. Explore our archive to find out more about how IT and tech has shaped society 👇 archivesit.org.uk/themes-and-t... #IAW2026

What did computing look like in the 1960s? #TeamCompSci

Tom Povey created one of the earliest electronic newsletters — the VOGON News Service, named after Douglas Adams' fictional bureaucratic overlords — to keep DEC expats connected to home. Learn about this pre-internet innovation: archivesit.org.uk/interviews/t... #DigitalHistory

Digital archives are older than you think. In the 1970s librarians and archivists were already managing digital data on magnetic tape. Here, Mrs. E.T. Brown is pictured in the US Navy's NMDSC medical library that held nearly 4,000 reels by 1975. Photo thanks to Navy Medicine.

Australian ICT Pioneer Dr Trevor Pearcey (1919-1998) with one of the world's earliest digital computers, the CSIR Mark 1, later known as CSIRAC. Only the UK and then the USA beat Australia into the computer age, and that was by months, not years. Image thanks to Museums Victoria.

In 1963, LEO III utilized transistors and tape drives, replacing mercury valves. LEO, the first commercial computer, was created in 1951 for J. Lyons & Co, a UK bakery, to automate payroll, processing 40 payslips per minute. #TechHistory #Innovation

Jodrell bank's radio telescope, made by Ferranti, in August 1966. At the time it was completed, it was the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope and is still used to observe space. Photograph @sciencemuseum.org.uk (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). #SpaceHistory

Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan in 1972. Cernan and his crewmate Harrison Schmitt spent three days exploring the Taurus-Littrow valley, collecting a record 115 kg (249 pounds) of lunar samples. To date, he is the last human to walk on the moon. Photograph thanks to NASA. #SpaceHistory

Astronaut Franklin R. Chang‑Diaz works with a grapple fixture during EVA on the International Space Station 9 June 2002. STS‑111's first spacewalk installed the fixture for the station's robotic arm on P6 truss. Photograph thanks to NASA #SpaceHistory

#OnThisDay 50 years ago, Apple Computer Company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. They launched their first product, the Apple I computer, a few months later. You can see the Apple I on display in our Making the Modern World gallery: https://bit.ly/4sNNULJ

Professor Sir Martin Sweeting receiving Digitalker signals from UoSAT-1, a British amateur radio satellite. Built at the University of Surrey, it launched into low Earth orbit on October 6, 1981. #SpaceHistory

The iconic Jodrell Bank radio telescope, crafted by UK tech giant Ferranti in 1966. Discover Ferranti's legacy here 👉️ archivesit.org.uk/iconic-compa... Photo courtesy of Science Museum Group Collection Online. (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). @jodrellbank.bsky.social @sciencemuseum.org.uk #TechHistory

Here's a glimpse of a factory worker inspecting circuits on computer equipment at the DEC Galway plant in 1972, just in time for St. Patrick's Day! 🍀 Big thanks to DEC Galway for the image. #StPatricksDay #TechHistory

If you shop online, please consider signing up to #Giveasyoulive for us this year. Every time you make an online purchase, order a grocery delivery, book a trip or switch your energy providers, you can generate donations that support our work, for free 👍 👉 bit.ly/4skr65B

Link to illuminating discussion IT professionals about how the industry responds to the Horizon scandal. Thanks to @archivesofit.bsky.social archivesit.org.uk/horizon-less...

Archives of IT is delighted to be collaborating with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds @rspb.bsky.social Big Schools' Birdwatch with complementary lesson plans. Big Schools’ Birdwatch submissions open today and offer a fun way to incorporate nature and data handling into curriculums.

Together we have raised £14,352 with the @biggiveorg Christmas Challenge! 🤩 Thank you to the AKO Foundation and all our generous supporters. There is still time today to donate to our work and get us closer to our target! donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...

Wow! Thanks to your amazing support, we’ve reached £12,790 — that’s 76% of our goal! And because of the #ChristmasChallenge, every donation has been doubled. 💚 We’re not done yet! There’s still time to double your difference by donating before midday tomorrow, Tuesday 9 December bit.ly/4iF44Tj ✨ 🙏

🚀 We’re halfway through the Big Give #ChristmasChallenge! 🎁🎁 Thanks to your generosity, we’ve raised £5,650 so far & every penny has been doubled. 💚 There’s still time to make double the impact before 9 December. For more information & to donate see: bit.ly/4iF44Tj ✨ 🙏

The Big Give #ChristmasChallenge begins! For one week donations to us on the Big Give site will be matched £1 for £1, doubling your impact. Our aim? £16,800 to support our mission 'Capturing the past to inspire the future.' Thanks to pledgers and The AKO Foundation donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...

🧊 Early cube offices at the Digital offices in Galway, Ireland. DEC's first plant outside the USA opened there in 1971 and closed in 1993. Today, open plan offices are popular. Anyone remember working in a cube? Image thanks to Digital Galway. @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

It’s great to be included in The National Archives’ Year in Archives 2025 for the work we completed publishing interviews with former workers of the Digital Equipment Corporation in collaboration with @readingmuseum.bsky.social and The National Museum of Computing. #AYearinArchives #OralHistory

Adrian, our Public Relations and Communications Manager, has selected this conversation with Eva Pascoe, a cybercafe trailblazer. Remember them? Discover the reasons behind his choice and learn about the well-known personalities she introduced to the digital world!