Before the Personal Computer

Seventy-two objects across the United States document the strange decade when computing shrank from a room to a desk.

72 Objects Documented

Between the mainframe and the Macintosh lies a decade of improvisation: a wooden box that became the mouse, a breadboard that became the Apple I, TTL logic that learned to play PONG.

These seventy-two objects — held in garages, home offices, and storage units across the country — record the moment computing stopped belonging to institutions. Most were nearly thrown away. Each was kept by someone who suspected the future would want to see it.