Finding Aid for the Electronic Computer Project (ECP) Records
ECP

Summary Information

Repository
Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center
Creator
Electronic Computer Project.
Title
Electronic Computer Project records
ID
ECP
Date [bulk]
Bulk, 1945-1955
Date [inclusive]
1940-1967
Extent
7.0 linear feet 12 manuscript boxes and 3 records boxes
Language
English
Abstract
The Electronic Computer Project, led by John von Neumann, was based at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1945 to 1960. The ECP records consist of correspondence, memos, reports, patents, contracts, operational guides, blueprints, punch cards, wiring drawings, diagrams, and logbooks.

Preferred Citation note

The suggested citation for the material is "[item], Electronic Computer Project records, [series] - Box [box number], From the Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA."

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Historical note

In 1933, John von Neumann became a Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in the School of Mathematics. By the mid-1940s, Prof. von Neumann began concentrating on computing work and he was trying to raise support and secure space for building an "electronic computing machine." Prof. von Neumann had to obtain permission from IAS to build something on premises because its commitment had been, and still is, firmly planted in the theoretical. Also, monetary support for the Electronic Computer Project (ECP) had to be found. While RCA Corporation was very involved in the beginning stages of the ECP, they did not contribute financially. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) was involved in other aspects, though like RCA, was not financially supportive. While IAS certainly funded some of the Project with several monetary donations, staff and housing for the Computer, government agencies such as the U.S. Atomic Energy Committee (AEC), United States Office of Naval Research (ONR), and various branches of the United States Army, provided the majority of financial support for the Project.

The Project was undertaken as a part of the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study. It was begun on the IAS campus in 1945 and in January 1952 culminated with the completion of a machine. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) machine built at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia was a precursor to the Institute Computer, as was the Electronic Discrete Variable Arithmetic Computer (EDVAC). Prof. von Neumann contributed much to the design of EDVAC. Herman H. Goldstine, one of the Engineers on the team that constructed the ENIAC, eventually came to the Institute to help Prof. von Neumann. Some of the principal Engineers on the Project were Julian Bigelow, Gerald Estrin, Willis Ware, James Pomerene, Sung Yuen Wong, Norman Phillips, Ralph Slutz and Hans J. Maehly.

Arthur Burks, Goldstine and von Neumann drafted the first version of "Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument" in June 1946 and multiple subsequent reports were written, many of which are represented here in the collection. While the Institute machine was not formally dedicated until 1952, calculations had been taking place on it since the summer of 1951. The computer was fully functional until 1960, though it was primarily used by Princeton University towards the end, and was eventually deposited in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History where it remains today.

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Scope and Contents note

The Electronic Computer Project records consist of correspondence, memos, reports, patents, contracts, operational guides, blueprints, punch cards, wiring drawings and diagrams that pertain to the ECP, computer science and some of the Engineers on the project. There are logbooks of meteorological studies done on the Institute Computer and other logbooks that contain memory notes, engineering and general arithmetic logs for the Computer. There is one legal-sized folder of ECP employee agreements. Oversized maps and blueprints were separated and are now located in the oversize flat file cabinets with memos to files.

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Arrangement note

The collection consists of 2 series. Correspondence, Reports and Papers, 1940-1967, are arranged alphabetically; Log Books, 1950-1958, are arranged chronologically.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center January 2004

Historical Studies-Social Science Library
Einstein Drive
Princeton
NJ, 08540
609-734-8375
archives@ias.edu

Revision Description

  November 27, 2018

Conditions Governing Access note

The Electronic Computer Project (ECP) records are open for research without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use note

Researchers are responsible for obtaining copyright permission to use the material from the collection for publication.

Immediate Source of Acquisition note

The Electronic Computer Project records were moved from the ECP building to another IAS campus storage area before being transferred to the Archives Center in the mid-1980s.

Processing Information note

The collection was processed by IAS library staff (Archives and Cataloging) Lisa R. Coats. Processing and cataloging were completed by May 2003. The processing included some cleaning, removal of rusty fasteners, placing all documents in acid-free folders, relabeling the files, removing larger maps and blueprints to put in a map box, and reboxing into acid-free document boxes or cubic boxes. The material was then cataloged in the Horizon database.

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Related Materials

Related Archival Materials note

There is a related collection of bulletins, reports, and pamphlets from the ECP Library and punch cards used by the ECP group. This collection has been titled Electronic Computer Project records (West Building Storage) to distinguish it from this collection.

The Director’s Office ECP files include significant correspondence related to the ECP.

Finally, files for scholars associated with the ECP, including those in the field of meteorology, are located in the School of Natural Sciences records.

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Controlled Access Headings

Corporate Name(s)

  • Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.). School of Mathematics.
  • International Business Machines Corporation.
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory.
  • Philadelphia Ordnance District.
  • RCA Corporation.
  • U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory.
  • U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
  • United States. Army. Ordnance Dept..
  • United States. Office of Naval Research.

Personal Name(s)

  • Acton, Forman S.
  • Aydelotte, Frank, 1880-1956
  • Bargmann, Sonja
  • Bargmann, V. (Valentine), 1908-
  • Barricelli, Nils Aall, 1912-
  • Bigelow, Julian Himely, 1913-2003
  • Birkhoff, Garrett, 1911-1996
  • Delsasso, Louis A.
  • Dirac, P. A. M. (Paul Adrien Maurice), 1902-1984
  • Elsasser, Walter M.
  • Estrin, Gerald
  • Goldstine, Herman Heine, 1913-
  • Halmos, Paul R. (Paul Richard), 1916-2006
  • Leutert, W. W.
  • Maehly, Hans J.
  • Minot, Morgan C., Jr.
  • Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 1904-1967
  • Panagos, Peter
  • Pomerene, James H.
  • Rees, Mina Spiegel, 1902-
  • Shuman, Fred
  • Slutz, Ralph Jeffery, 1917-
  • Tuckerman, Bryant, 1915-2002
  • Veblen, Oswald, 1880-1960
  • Von Neumann, John, 1903-1957
  • Ware, Willis H.
  • Wigner, Eugene Paul, 1902-1995
  • Wong, Sung Yuen

Subject(s)

  • Ballistics
  • Computer logic
  • Computers
  • Logic machines
  • Logic, Symbolic and mathematical
  • Machine theory
  • Physics

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Bibliography

Aspray, William. John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990.

Bigelow, Julian. "Computer Development at the Institute for Advanced Study", in A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century by N. Metropolis, J. Howlett and Gian-Carlo Rota. Academic Press, Inc., 1980: 291-310.

Dyson, George B. Turing's Cathedral. New York: Random House, 2012.

Dyson, George B. Darwin Among the Machines: the Evolution of Global Intelligence. Cambridge: Perseus, 1997.

Goldstine, Herman H. The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.

Oppenheimer, J. Robert. Institute for Advanced Study, "Report of the Director, 1948-1953."

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Collection Inventory

Series I: Correspondence, Reports and Papers   10.0 document boxes

Scope and Contents note

This section is 10 boxes of material including correspondence, notes, memos, reports, minutes, drawings for reports and papers on subjects related to computer science. Some of the larger maps and blueprints have been removed from the files they originally came in and are now located in the oversize flat file cabinets. Notes to the file were placed in the files and in the map folders.
Box Folder

Ballistic Research Laboratories correspondence 1947-1956 

 1 1

Computer patents correspondence 1945-1949 

 1 2

Computer development, IAS description of computer 1948 

 1 3

Computer patents, Bigelow correspondence 1948-1952 

 1 4

Computer utilization 1956-1957 

 1 5

Contract N-7-onr-388 (01), correspondence 1946-1955 

 1 6

Steering committee meeting minutes and notes 1950-1954 

 1 7

Computer patents and note cards 1946-1967 

 1 8

Contract DA-36-034-ORD-1646 1954 

 1 8a

Contract DA-36-034-ORD-1646 1954-1956 

 1 8b

Contract N7onr-388 (01) 1947-1953 

 1 8c

Contract N7onr-379 (01) 1949 

 1 8

Contract Nonr-1358 (03) 1955-1957 

 1 8e

Contract Nonr-1358 (04) 1956-1957 

 1 8

Distribution lists, correspondence and reports 1947-1954 

 2 9
Box

Distribution card files 1947-1951 

 16
Box Folder

Distribution lists, correspondence and reports 1955-1963 

 2 10

New drawing, not for report 1953 

 2 11

Regulator drawings undated 

 2 12

"Move" generated data and drawings July-Oct. 1953 

 2 13

Tube checker and Sung Yuen Wong's tube notes 1951-1954 

 2 14

Codes 1953-1957 

 2 15

IBM, notes and drawings (5-29, 8-18 and 1-18) 1952 

 2 16

IBM, extracts 1954 

 2 17

Final drawings April 29, 1952 and February 6, 1957 

 2 18

Gate adjustment and testing May 12-13, 1955 

 2 19

IBM Wiring Diagram 1948-1952 

 2 20

Carry delay unit, notes and drawings 1953 

 2 21

Test tube wiring, notes and drawings 1955 

 2 22

Spill-addition left shift, notes and drawings 1956 

 2 23

M/C wiring (power), notes and drawings 1953-1954 

 2 24

Williams storage tubes, notes, drawings and report 1950-1953 

 2 25

Miscellaneous drawings 1955-1956 

 2 26

Office, Chief of Ordnance, correspondence 1947-1951 

 3 27

Office of Naval Research, correspondence 1946-1957 

 3 28

Surveys on computing machines 1952-1955 

 3 29

Problems run on IAS machine 1952-1955 

 3 30

Weizmann Institute of Science, Magnetic Drum 1956-1957 

 3 31

Navy progress reports, N-7-onr-388, T.O.I. November 1949-April 1955 

 3 32

Navy progress reports, Nonr 1358 (03) and (04) July 1955-May/June 1957 

 3 33

Navy progress reports, N-6-ori-139, T.O.I. July 1, 1946-September 30, 1952 

 3 34

Progress reports, DA-36-ORD-1646 and Nonr 1358 1956 

 3 35

Progress reports, DA-36-ORD-1646 and Nonr 1358 July 1954-December 1955 

 3 36

Army progress reports, DA-36-034-ORD-1330-RD, project number TB3-0538 July 1953-June 1954 

 4 37

Army progress reports, DA-36-034-ORD-1023-RD July 1952-June 1953 

 4 38

Army progress reports, DA-36-034-ORD-19 July 1950-June 1952 

 4 39

Army progress reports, W-36-034-ORD-7481 July 1947-June 1950 

 4 40

Technical report 56-01 January 1956 

 4 41

Technical report 56-03 June 1956 

 4 42

Technical report 55-02 August 1955 

 4 43

Technical report 55-01 July 1955 

 4 44

Nils Aall Barricelli, "Experiments on Bionumeric Evolution Executed by the Computer at Princeton, NJ" August 1953 

 4 45

Nils Barricelli "blueprints" - formats and locations 
Box

DVD. Scans created by the Regional Digital Imaging Center at The Athenaeum of Philadelphia. 3.66 GB   1.0 DVD

 Misc 3 (see Audiovisual formats)
Drawer

Original oversize paper documents 

1b (JPEG)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/3507]

1c (JPEG)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/3508]

1d (JPEG)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/3504]

2a (JPEG)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/3509]

1a (JPEG)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/3506]

2c (JPEG)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/3511]

2b (JPEG)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/3510]

3-4 (JPEG)

[https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/3512] 		Oversize flat file cabinet

Bargmann, Montgomery, von Neumann, "Solution of Linear Systems of High Order" October 25, 1946 

 4 46

Walter M. Elsasser, "Boundary-value Problems of Hydromagnetics" September 1950 

 4 47

Walter M. Elsasser, "Causes of Motion in the Earth's Core" 1949 

 4 48

Walter M. Elsasser, "Magnetic Field Energy of Large Conducting Fluids" 1949 

 4 49

Gerald Estrin, "The Electronic Computer at the Institute for Advanced Study, Automatic Computing Machinery" April 1953 

 5 50

Fred Shuman, "A Method of Interpolating Heights Between Isobaric Levels" April 1952 

 5 51

Philip D. Thompson, "A Class of Permanent Waves in Two Dimensional Flow of Homogeneous Fluids" 1949? 

 5 52

"Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument" (Pomerene's copy) June 1946 

 5 53

"Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" (Library copy) January 1947 

 5 54

"Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" (Marked copy) January 1947 

 5 55

"Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" (copy 3) January 1947 

 5 56

"Second Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" (Library copy) July 1947 

 6 57

"Second Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" (Marked copy) July 1947 

 6 58

"Second Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" (copy 3) July 1947 

 6 59

"Planning and Coding of Problems," part II, volume I 1947-1948 

 6 60

"Planning and Coding of Problems," part II, volume II 1948 

 6 61

"Planning and Coding of Problems," part II, volume III 1948 

 6 62

"Numerical Inverting of Matrices of High Order," I and II 1947, 1951 

 7 63

"First Progress Report on a Multi-Channel Magnetic Drum Inner Memory for Use in Electronic Digital Computing Instruments" July 1, 1948 

 7 64

"Third Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" January 1, 1948 

 7 65

"Fourth Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" (Library copy) July 1, 1948 

 7 66

"Fourth Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" (Project copy) July 1, 1948 

 7 67

"Fourth Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" (Master copy) July 1, 1948 

 7 68

"Fourth Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" (Captioned and numbered pictures and figures) July 1, 1948 

 7 69

"Fifth Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" January 1, 1949 

 8 70

"Sixth Interim Progress Report on the Physical Realization of an Electronic Computing Instrument" September 1951 

 8 71

Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1023 (Parts I and II, copy) April 1954 

 8 72

Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1023 (Part I, originals) April 1954 

 8 73

Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1023 (Part II, originals) April 1954 

 8 74

Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1023 (Part II, drawings only) (larger drawings removed and placed in Map Box #1) April 1954 

 8 75

Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1330 December 1954 

 9 76

Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1646 (Part I) July 1954-December 1956 

 9 77

Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1646 (Part II) July 1956-December 1956 

 9 78

Final Report on Contract No. Nonr 1358 (03) July 1957 

 9 79

Final Report on Contract No. Nonr 1358 (04) August 1957 

 9 80

Meetings at IAS and RCA (Originals) 1945 

 9 81

Meetings at IAS and RCA (Copy) 1945 

 9 82

Appendix to bibliographies (Offprints from John von Neumann's files) 1940-1948 

 10 83

Calculation to "e" to "a" large number of places (parts of a paper and notes from John von Neumann's files) undated 

 10 84

Functional Operators, Comments (handwritten notes) undated 

 10 85

"Hilbert Space" Paris lecture, by John von Neumann in French May 6, 1935 

 10 86

"Invariant Measures" IAS lecture, Notes by Paul R. Halmos (pp. 1-115) 1940-1941 

 10 87

"Invariant Measures" IAS lecture, Notes by Paul R. Halmos (pp. 116-228, end) 1940-1941 

 10 88

Confidential memo to Oppenheimer October 23, 1944 

 10 89

"Eine Spektraltheorie fur allgemeine Operatoren eines unitaren Raumes" (Paper by John von Neumann in German) undated 

 10 90

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Series II: Logbooks   5.0 document boxes

Scope and Contents note

These five boxes, #11-15, contain various logbooks and notebooks from the ECP. Some are for meteorological studies done and others are memory notes, engineering and general arithmetic logs. There is one legal-sized folder of employee agreements in box #13, placed there because of size and indeterminate original location.
Box

Meteorology logbooks #1-8 and #10. No logbook #9 (handwritten in marble composition notebooks) 1951-1952 

 11

Memory notes and three other miscellaneous logbooks (handwritten in marble composition notebooks) 1952 

 12

One folder of employment agreements 1950-1954 

 13

Eleven logbooks: engineering, meteorological, general arithmetic 1952-1955 

 13

Twenty operating logbooks May 1954-December 1955 

 14

Thirty-one operating logbooks January 1956-July 1958 

 15

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