Revolution: The First 2,000 Years of Computing: The Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California

摘要

Every museum studies student should be required to analyze the Computer History Museum's permanent exhibition, titled Revolution: The First 2,000 Years of Computing, as a window on contemporary curatorial issues. Every historian of technology should study the exhibition to understand the difficulties curators face when interpreting scholarly research for a public audience. Revolution is an important case study not because it is perfect, but rather because it is an imperfect exhibition that illustrates the challenges confronted by extraordinarily conscientious curators. The Computer History Museum (CHM) is currently located in Mountain View, California, housed in the former headquarters of Silicon Graphics. Prior to the purchase of this building in 2002, an important artifact in and of itself, the collection had been exhibited in several different locations, with the first public display opening in 1984 at Museum Wharf in Boston.