Computer History Museum oral histories: preserve a speaker’s perspective

The Computer History Museum's oral histories offer accounts from people involved in computing. They are useful for questions that technical specifications alone cannot answer: how teams worked, what constraints people remember and how participants understood a decision at the time of an interview. Choose an interview relevant to a specific event or project. Record the speaker, interviewer, interview date and a timestamp or transcript location for the passage you use. Keep the speaker's interpretation distinct from independently established facts. When a recollection names another person, document or product, follow that lead to contemporary evidence where possible. Memory is selective, and the interview setting can shape what is discussed. The date of an interview is not the date of the event being remembered. Avoid presenting a vivid quotation as the final explanation of a complex development. The strongest use pairs the account with documents, artifacts and other voices, allowing differences between them to become part of the research rather than an inconvenience to hide.

Editorial review: 2026-09-23. New evidence may change this account.

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