File was originally housed in a binder for files 183-191 with the following heading: "A l'ecoute du monde" [Listen to the world]
Collection Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Collection Citation:
UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music of the World records, Ralph Rinzler Folklikfe Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
International Business Machines Corporation Search this
Extent:
3.5 Cubic feet (11 boxes, 1 map-folder)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Articles
Transcripts
Technical drawings
Notebooks
Correspondence
Examinations (documents)
Notes
Patents
Date:
1943-2012
Summary:
The collection documents the career of N. Joseph Woodland, who, along with Bernard Silver, invented and developed the bar code.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents the career of N. Joseph Woodland, who, along with Bernard Silver, invented and developed the bar code. The collection includes papers relating to Woodland's early life and education, such as exams and transcripts; papers relating to his work with IBM, including correspondence, notes and notebooks, and technical drawings; patents; photographs; awards and honors; articles.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into five series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1943-2012
Series 2: International Business machines Corporation (IBM), 1951-2006
Series 3: Node Code, 1986-2003
Series 4: Consulting, 1987-2000
Series 5: Audiovisual Materials, 1990-2011
Biographical / Historical:
Norman Joseph Woodland (1921-2012) was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Woodland also served during World War II in the Army as a technical assistant for the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University (1947) and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Syracuse University (1956). He joined the Drexel University faculty as a lecturer in mechanical engineering in 1947.
In 1948, Woodland became aware of the need for supermarket inventory control through automated checkout. He conceived of the idea of using printed parallel stripes of varying widths to encode prices of items in 1949. Woodland, together with Bernard Silver (1921-1963), an electrical engineer, and fellow Drexel University faculty lecturer, defined a system to exploit the bar code invention to automatically capture item prices as well as inventory data. Woodland and Silver were issued US patent 2,612,994 for a classifying apparatus and method on October 7, 1952. Woodland and Silver sold their patent for $15,000 to Philco in 1961.
Woodland joined IBM in 1951 as a mechanical designer and later worked as a senior planner in artificial intelligence in general and expert systems. While at IBM, Woodland identified and applied existing and emerging technologies to enhance planned IBM products and systems. He worked in store systems marketing, long-range market planning, product planning, and artificial intelligence development. In 1983, he received an IBM technical sabbatical to work on expert systems and robotics at Carnegie Mellon University and to study these systems in use in Japan. A significant portion of Woodland's career focused on the bar code in general and supermarket automated check-out processes. His work laid the foundation for the creation of the universal product code (UPC symbol), for which ), for which he was an integral part of the IBM team's winning design, in his role as the person responsible for IBM's UPC symbol proposal to the grocery industry's symbol selection committee.
In 1992, Woodland won the National Medal of Technology for his invention and contribution to the commercialization of bar code technology, which improved productivity in every industrial sector and gave rise to the bar code industry. Woodland holds six patents.
Woodland married Jacqueline Woodland (née Blumberg) in 1951 and they had two daughters, Betsy Karpenkopf and Susan Woodland.
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives Center in 2017 by Susan Woodland, the daughter of N. Joseph Woodland.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
N. Joseph Woodland Papers, 1943-2012, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
George Laurer, David Savir, and Joe Woodland, recipients of an outstanding contribution award for developing and proposing an optical bar code for the supermarket industry.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
N. Joseph Woodland Papers, 1943-2012, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Woodland joined IBM in 1951. An early inventor in optical bar code technology, his patent (US 2,612,994) covers a bar code symbol for automation of supermarket checkout. This series contains correspondence, memoranda, patents, notes, published materials, and lectures and presentations primarily about the development of the barcode (later referred to as the universal product code), created during Woodland's tenure at IBM. Other work undertaken by Woodland at IBM is also included here.
The development of standardized product codes was underwayfor many years but was uncoordinated. Various manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and industry organizations made efforts to establish barcodes that could be used to track products. Efforts failed because participants could not resolve conflicts about the size of the barcode, compatibility with exiting product codes, and costs. In 1970, the Grocery Industry Ad Hoc Committee formed to study and report on the economic potential of the universal product code (UPC) along with any obstacles. In April 1970, the committee concluded that the UPC should be adopted with the understanding that the UP should have broad application, not just for checkout systems. From 1972 to 1973, work continued on symbol standardization. In March 1973, the decision to adopt the rectangular symbol was announced.
There are materials post 1987, the year Woodland retired from IBM. These materials include lectures, presentations, and seminars about the barcode. The materials for 25 Years Behind the Bars exhibit include an audio interview with Woodland conducted on August 23, 1999 by curator David Allison of the National Museum of American History. The exhibit was located in the Museum's Information Technology and Society section and showed the development of the original symbology, its integration into the grocery industry, its massive effects on business, and the future uses of the famous black and white bars.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
N. Joseph Woodland Papers, 1943-2012, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
N. Joseph Woodland Papers, 1943-2012, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
N. Joseph Woodland Papers, 1943-2012, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
