Carl Machover papers.
Scope and Content Note
There are nine series in this collection, including Job Files, Correspondence, Subject Files, Data Sheets, Research Files, Course Files, General Files, Audiovisual, and Books.
The collection includes correspondence, newspaper articles and clippings, photographs, VHS tapes, brochures, notes, financial records, books, publications, and memoranda documenting Machover's work in the computer graphics industry. The papers mainly document Machover's work with Machover Associates, Inc., starting in 1976. Job files are the largest portion of the archival materials, comprising approximately 140 cubic feet. Some files relate to Machover's personal life and his work with professional associations, as well as to his career.
Dates
- 1967-2007
Creator
- Machover, Carl (Person)
Language of Materials
English
Access to materials:
Access to the collection is unrestricted.
Copyright:
The Charles Babbage Institute holds the copyright to all materials in the collection, except for items covered by a prior copyright (such as published materials). Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provisions of the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).
Biographical Note
Carl Machover was born in Brooklyn, New York, and moved with his family to Davenport, Iowa at the age of three. After graduating from Davenport High School, he entered the Navy during World War II, during which he was trained in radio and radar. This training in electronics helped him decide to go to school, after he left the Navy, for electrical engineering. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Insitute (RPI) in 1951 and took a job with Norden Laboratories Corporation. Machover left Norden in the late 1950s to work for Skiatron Electronics and TV. His knowledge of gyroscopes and his experience at Skiatron led him in the direction of computer graphics display.
Machover left Skiatron several years later and with several associates formed a company originally called RMS Associates, later Information Displays (IDI), formed around what was then called information display technology (a more modern term is computer-aided design, or CAD). The company ultimately built a stand-alone CAD platform called the IDIIOM (the IDI Input-Output Machine), whose main competitor was the IBM 2250. Machover was a marketer with IDI until 1976, when he formed Machover Associates, a management consulting company to provide management, engineering, marketing, and financial services to computer graphics users, vendors, and investors.
Machover published several books, including Basics of Gyroscopesin 1960 and the CAD/CAM Handbookin 1980. He was also the co-executive producer of the 1999 documentary The Story of Computer Graphics, produced by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Machover was active in professional associations, including ACM's SIGGRAPH (the special interest group on computer graphics); the Society for Information Display (SID), for which he was both president and fellow; the National Computer Graphics Association (NCGA); and Art and Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI), acting as president for both of these latter associations. He also helped to form the Computer Graphics Pioneers group, was an adjunct professor of interactive computer graphics at RPI, and was an advisory board member of the Pratt Center for Computer Graphics in Design.
For additional information, please see OH 362, an oral history with Carl Machover, at http://purl.umn.edu/107462.
Extent
283 boxes (283 cubic feet)
Abstract
The collection includes correspondence, newspaper articles and clippings, photographs, VHS tapes, brochures, notes, financial records, books, publications, and memoranda documenting Machover's work in the computer graphics industry. The papers mainly document Machover's work with Machover Associates, Inc., starting in 1976.
Arrangement of Collection
Machover used a category and numerical system to organize many of his materials. When available, this system was maintained. Audiovisual materials are arranged by number (01-611), with unnumbered tapes at the end. Job Files are arranged by J number, again with some unnumbered or "A"-numbered files at the end, making the files roughly chronological. A group of job files documenting Machover's work with Information Displays, Inc. is listed at the beginning of the job files series even though these files do not have J numbers. Subject files are arranged by P number and data sheets are additionally arranged numerically.
Other materials were not originally ordered numerically and have been given an imposed order. Correspondence is arranged in generally reverse chronological order. Research files and course files are ordered chronologically, while general files are arranged alphabetically.
Acquisition:
The papers were donated by Carl and Wilma Machover in 2008.
- Computer graphics. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Machover, Carl
- SIGGRAPH Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- Carl Machover Papers, 1967-2007.
- Subtitle
- Finding Aid.
- Author
- Prepared by Molly Behrens, Stephanie Crowe, Valerie MacDonald, and Danielle Storm, 2010.
- Date
- 2010
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Collecting Area Details
Contact The Charles Babbage Institute Archives Collecting Area
Elmer L. Andersen Library
222 - 21st Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55455
612-624-5050
cbi@umn.edu
