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Tech Museum Vacation: Eight Computer Museums Worth the Visit

By Ericka Chickowski on 2010-08-27



As the dog days of summer whimper to an end, workers everywhere are scraping together a few last days of vacation before the kids head back to school and the days grow shorter. While the beach may be fun for the more pedestrian vacationers, tech geeks know that no vacation would be complete without some quality museum time, preferably amidst a collection of silicon-based artifacts worth blogging about. Visit just one, or take a tour of all eight we’ve collected here from Silicon Valley to Montana to the U.K. The following technology museums are a perfect way to pay homage to the annals of computer history, and to teach the young ones that there was a time before iPads and netbooks.
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Intel MuseumLocation: Santa Clara, CAThis immersive museum offers visitors hands-on exhibits that explore how computer chips are designed and manufactured. The best part? You get to try on one of the famous fab bunny suits.

InfoAgeLocation: Wall, NJHoused at Camp Evans, the birthplace of wireless communication and radar, this museum features a vintage computer museum with a range of specimens that stretch from homebrew to big iron, with models like the UNIVAC 1219, DEC PDP-8, IBM System/38, Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080 on display

Computer History MuseumLocation: Mountain View, CAThe largest standalone computing museum in the US, this is a Mecca for tech enthusiasts of all stripes, featuring fascinating exhibits on pioneers like Charles Babbage, collections of microprocessors, even exhibits of historical computer marketing brochures.

American Computer MuseumLocation: Bozeman, MTWinners of numerous museum exhibit awards over the years, this repository of computer history may be a bit out of the way, but it does house over 1,000 artifacts of computing errata from the age of information, including a Burroughs 205, the Omega watch worn by Apollo 15 Commander David Scott and one of only 200 Apple 1 computers ever created.

National Museum of ComputingLocation: Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, EnglandThis outstanding collection of computing history is at home at the august facilities of Bletchely Park, England's base of codebreaker operations during WWII--yes, this was where the Enigma was born. Techies who find themselves across the pond have got to check out this museum's galleries of early big systems and its exhibition of PC machines over the decades.

The Tech MuseumLocation: San Jose, Calif.Referred to as The Tech, San Jose’s museum of technology officially opened in its own home on Oct. 31, 1998 and has had more than 4 million visitors since then. Galleries include themes such as Communication, Exploration, Innovation and Tech Life. And be sure to plan enough time to catch a movie in the IMAX theater, too.

MIT Museum Location: Cambridge, Ma.The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum is host to several futuristic exhibits, including ones looking at brain imaging, robots, artificial intelligence and holography. It also offers artifacts of historical interest including cathode-ray tubes, stroboscopes and slide rules.

Smithsonian Museum of Science and TechnologyLocation: Washington, D.C.This part of the Smithsonian includes a section dedicated to Computer technology that also offers online resources for those looking to trace the history of integrated circuits, how technology has changed the workplace, the application of the digital computer to aviation. And of course it features a collection of artifacts from computer history.

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