Inventor Name
Hollerith, Herman
Repository
Hagley Museum and Library
PO Box 3630
Wilmington, DE 19807-0630
302-658-2400
https://www.hagley.org/research
Physical Description
4 linear ft.
Summary
Geoffrey David Austrian was born on March 31, 1930. Austrian first became interested in the life of Herman Hollerith (1860-1929), inventor of the puched-card system of data processing, while working for the International Business Machines Corporation, the firm that grew out of Hollerith’s invention. Austrian stumbled across Hollerith’s name during a search for background information for "IBM Day" in 1964. It was not until 1968, after a chance meeting with a member of the Hollerith family that Austrian began to formulate his ideas for a book. With the support of IBM, Austrian began work on his book in 1972. "Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Giant of Information Processing" was published by the Columbia University Press in 1982. Austrian has published three other books: "The Truth about Drugs," 1971, "Dark Deeds: At the U.S. Naval Observatory, They Make it their Nightly Business to Track Heavenly Bodies," 1983, and "Ben Austrian, Artist," 1997. The Austrian Papers are the research materials Austrian used to write "Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Giant of Information Processing." Austrian’s research includes notes from interviews with Hollerith family members and copies of materials from the IBM archives and other repositories, including the New York Public Library. The Austrian Papers are arranged in three series that include biography note cards, backup research files, and other research material. Austrian filed his research notes in two formats, the first on 3x5 cards, arranged chronologically. The remainder of the notes are arranged alphabetically by subject. The folder titles are those originally given by Austrian.
