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Rice Institute Computer Project records

 Collection
Identifier: UA 0087
Finding aid note: Stored offsite at the Library Service Center and require 24-hour notice for retrieval. Please contact the Woodson Research Center at 713-348-2586 or woodson@rice.edu for more information.

Scope and Contents

Records of the first computer developed at Rice University (then Rice Institute) including correspondence, memoranda, manuals, news clippings, photographs, and drawings.

Dates

  • Creation: 1956 - 1996
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1956 - 1974

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Stored offsite at the Library Service Center and require 24-hour notice for retrieval. Please contact the Woodson Research Center at 713-348-2586 or woodson@rice.edu for more information.

Access Restrictions

This material is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish from this material must be facilitated through the Woodson Research Center.

Biographical / Historical

In 1956, three Rice University faculty members, Zevi Salsburg, John Kilpatrick, and Larry Biedenharn, brought supercomputing to the school for the first time in the form of the R1 computer. While it wasn’t the first computer at Rice, it was the university’s first large computational research computer. At the time, the researchers couldn’t simply go out and purchase a mammoth supercomputer; they literally had to design and build the R1 themselves. The R1 took up a large amount of space on the second floor of the Abercrombie Engineering Building.

Extent

7 Linear Feet (6 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

This collection contains records of the first computer developed at Rice University (then Rice Institute) including correspondence, memoranda, manuals, news clippings, photographs, and drawings.

Acquistion Information

Department of Computer Science - 2002, 2003, 2008

Title
Guide to the Rice Institute Computer Project records, 1956-1996
Status
Completed
Date
2014, revised 2020
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Woodson Research Center, Rice University, Houston, Texas Repository

Contact:
Fondren Library MS-44, Rice University
6100 Main St.
Houston Texas 77005 USA
713-348-2586