Papers relate to Gordon D. Goldstein, a computer engineer and frequent seminar speaker and participant, especially in the fields of linguistics and machine translation.
Scope and Contents:
The Goldstein Collection documents an interesting and important period in the development of the early computer industry. Many of the items in the collection are technical in nature; others, however, provide an interesting perspective on the development of post-war American culture. Items in the collection include design and training materials, operational manuals, professional literature, advertisements and promotional items, photographs, business and office documentation, and conference and seminar materials.
The collection is divided into five series. The first three series correspond to Goldstein's employment history; the fourth series includes notes and minutes from UNIVAC and computer conferences attended by Goldstein; and the fifth series contains general computer publications and computer advertisements. Of particular interest in the last series is a copy of the 1954 Report to the Association for Computing Machinery: First Glossary of Programming Terminology. This item was edited by Grace Murray Hopper.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 5 series.
Series 1, National Bureau of Standards, Electronic Computers Section/Standards Eastern Automatic Computer, 1948-1953
Series 2, U.S. Navy/Applied Mathematics Laboratory, 1950-1957
Series 3, UNIVAC-Remington Rand Corporation/Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, 1948--956
Series 4, UNIVAC Conferences, 1950-1956
Series 5, Publications and Competitor Materials, 1950-1955
Biographical / Historical:
Born in 1917, Gordon D. Goldstein graduated from Clarkson College of Technology with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. In 1941, Goldstein took a job with the Army Signal Corp as a civilian inspector of radio and navigation equipment. After leaving the Army Signal Corp, Goldstein took a job as development engineer at the Washington Institute of Technology where he was employed until 1950. From 1950 to 1951 he worked as chief engineer with computers for the Census Bureau in Philadelphia.
In 1951, Goldstein left the Census Bureau and took a job with the Navy Department. During his tenure there, Goldstein worked in three offices or divisions: the Naval Ordnance Laboratory (electronics scientist), the David Taylor Model Basin's Applied Mathematics Laboratory, and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Information Systems Program where he was involved with applications of UNIVAC I. Goldstein worked in the Office of Naval Research from 1956 until his retirement in 1980.
Sources
Berkeley, Edmund C., ed. Who's Who in Computers and Data Processing 1971: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Computer Professionals. New York: The New York Times Book and Educational Division, 1971.
Gordon D. Goldstein Papers, 1950-1979. Charles Babbage Institute: Center for the History of Information Processing.
Williams, Michael R. A History of Computing Technology. Los Alamitos, California: IEEE Computer Society Press, 1997.
Related Materials:
Materials in Other Organizations
The Charles Babbage Institute, Center for the History of Information Processing houses the Gordon D. Goldstein Papers, 1950-1979, http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/cbi00068.xml
Archives Center, National Museum of American History houses the Computer Oral History Collection, 1969-1973, 1977 http://invention.smithsonian.org/resources/fa_comporalhist_index.aspx
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Gordon D. Goldstein on December 13, 1978.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
