October 3, 2021
AMERICAN COMPUTER & ROBOTICS MUSEUM
2023 Stadium Dr #1a, Bozeman, MT 59715
“The American Computer & Robotics Museum, formerly known as the American Computer Museum, is a museum of the history of computing, communications, artificial intelligence and robotics that is located in Bozeman, Montana, United States.” Wikipedia
Having owned a personal computer for over 40 years, I decided to go check out this museum.
After paying the small admission fee, I was given an introduction to the museum and computers. This museum truly has amassed quite a collection of computers through the years. From personal computers to computers used by NASA to the development of AI, there are exhibits which touch on many things. A highlight for me was seeing a model of the first personal computer I had in my classroom in about 1980 (the Apple II). I was also intrigued by the coding machines used by the Germans in WWII, and how the United States used a computer to break the code, an impossibility without the computer.
It was a nice little museum, even if some of what I tried reading went way over my head.
A display acknowledging the people who worked in garages and basements developing the earliest personal computers.
The motherboard of the Apple I - signed by Steve Wozniak, the developer.
Many of the first personal computers.
The Apple II - the first computer I had in my classroom.
Early pocket calculators.
The PDP-8, considered to be the first personal computer.
The museum has a new collection showing the development of the Mac computers.
The mainframe computer used by NASA for the Apollo 11 Mission
Not sure why this is in this musuem, but it was cool...a letter from John Glenn explaining why Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.
Models of AI - robots
A display examining the connection between how neurons in the human brain work and the connection to computers.
Enigma - the machine used by the Germans in WWII to make coded messages.