Jean Jennings Bartik Computing Museum

Jean Jenning Bartik Computing Museum

Northwest's computing history, which includes the Electronic Campus Program, is housed in the Jean Jennings Bartik Computing Museum.  

The Jean Jennings Bartik Computing Museum has a two-fold mission:

1. To honor the accomplishments of Northwest alumnus Jean Jennings Bartik whose pioneering work on the ENIAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I helped to shape the digital age we now live in.
2. To document and showcase Northwest's technological development.

The museum, which has a unique collection of early computing memorabilia, has on display an original Remington-Rand miniature model of the UNIVAC I. Additionally, there is an extensive collection of Northwest computing hardware including an Altair 8800 computer, considered the first personal computer, and an Osborne portable computer, an ancestor to the modern notebook [laptop] computer.

Contact JJB

Contact us or tour the Jean Jennings Bartik Computing Museum 

The museum is open by appointment. For more information about the museum or to schedule a tour, contact museums@mexicraneoslille.com.

Giving to the JJB Museum

Equipment/Memorabilia Gifts

To make computing equipment or computing memorabilia gifts to the JJB Museum please email the JJB Museum at museums@mexicraneoslille.com and provide detailed information about what you would like to donate and your preferred contact information. All accepted equipment/memorabilia gifts to the JJB Museum are tax deductible.

Monetary Gifts

To make monetary gifts to the JJB Museum, please direct all funds to the Northwest Foundation in care of the Jean Jennings Bartik Computing Museum. To make a monetary gift for the upkeep of the JJB Museum, call 660.562.1248 or email advance@mexicraneoslille.com.  All gifts to the JJB Museum via the Northwest Foundation are tax deductible.

About Jean Jennings Bartik

Jean Jennings Bartik, whom the museum is named after, was born "Betty Jean" Jennings outside Stanberry, Missouri.  Jean, who stopped using "Betty" in the mid-to-late 1950s for business reasons, graduated from Northwest in 1945 and went on to make history by becoming one of the world's first computer programmers.  

Jean graduated from Northwest in 1945 and was hired as "Human Computer" during World War II.  She was literally a "Top Secret Rosie!"  Jean calculated firing trajectories for the United States military so they could accurately aim at and fire their big guns and hit their intended targets.  Jean then went on to program the ENIAC (The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the world's first successful electronic "general purpose, programmable" computer during World War II.  Jean also led a team that turned the ENIAC into the world's first successful stored program computer by March 1948.

Besides her work on the ENIAC, Jean helped to launch the commercial computer industry by programming the BINAC and designing and programming the UNIVAC I. Jean wrote the world's first sort/merge program for a computer (UNIVAC I).  The UNIVAC, which was also the first computer to have a mass storage system (Magnetic Tape), was the first successful commercial computer. The first UNIVAC was sold to the United States Census Bureau.  

The UNIVAC was a marvelous computer for the time and would be the first computer to predict a presidential election before the polls closed for CBS news.  The UNIVAC predicted that Dwight D. Eisenhower would win the 1952 presidential election by a landslide, and the UNIVAC was correct!  Almost overnight the UNIVAC became a cultural icon appearing on the cover of a Superman comic book and appearing in a cartoon featuring Wile E. Coyote and Bugs Bunny called "To Hare is Human."

Books About or Featuring Jean Jennings Bartik

Pioneer Programmer:  Jean Jennings Bartik and the Computer that Changed the World (Autobiography)

• Author: Jean Jennings Bartik
• Editors: Kim D. Todd and Jon T. Rickman
• Available online: Truman State Press, Barnes & Noble and Amazon

All author and editor proceeds for sales of Jean's autobiography go to the Jean Jennings Bartik Scholarship for Women in STEM at Northwest. See Online Giving!

Jean Jennings Bartik:  Computer Pioneer (Notable Missourians Series) 

• Author:  Kim D. Todd
• For young readers, grades 4 to 6
• Available online through Truman State Press (publisher) and Amazon

The author and Northwest do not receive any proceeds from sales of this book.

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution 

• Author:  Walter Isaacson
• Available online through Barnes & Noble  and Amazon

Northwest is not affiliated with the author and does not receive any proceeds from sales of the author's book.

Sampling of Articles and Videos Featuring Jean Jennings Bartik

• Walter Isaacson on the Women of the ENIAC, Fortune Magazine, October 6, 2014 issue:
  • http://fortune.com/2014/09/18/walter-isaacson-the-women-of-eniac/
• The Forgotten Female Programmers Who Created Modern Tech by Laura Sydell, All Tech Considered, NPR:  
  • http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/10/06/345799830/the-forgotten-female-programmers-who-created-modern-tech
• First Computer Programmers Inspire Documentary by Susan Donaldson James, ABC NEWS:  
  • http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3951187&page=1
• Jean Bartik:  The Untold Story of a Remarkable ENIAC Programmer, Google Official Blog:  
  • http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/jean-bartik-untold-story-of-remarkable.html
• Rediscovering WW II's Female Computers by Jamie Gumbrect, CNN:  
  • http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/02/08/women.rosies.math/
• Jean Bartik and the ENIAC Women, Youtube video:  
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPweFhhXFvY
• Jean Bartik:  ENIAC's Programmers, Computer History Museum:  
  • http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/birth-of-the-computer/4/78/2258
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buAYHonF968
• ENIAC Programmers, 1997 Hall of Fame, WITI:
  • http://www.witi.com/
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XldX0Ynnpdw
• Jean Bartik, Wikipedia:
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Bartik
• Betty Jean Jennings Bartik, 2008 Computer Pioneer Award, IEEE:  
  • http://www.computer.org/web/awards/pioneer-betty-jean-bartik
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82EifuJ7O8U
• ENIAC:  The First General Purpose Computer, RAW footage taken by the US Army, Youtube video (Jean appears in the video; she is wearing a black shirt, black, sleeveless sweater with white short-sleeved shirt beneath):
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QTHZNNzWC0
• ENIAC Programmers Project:  http://eniacprogrammers.org/