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Montage of photos of 8 women inventors

Top row: Marion O'Brien Donovan, Tara Astigarraga, Madison Maxey, Marilyn Hamilton. Bottom row: Michelle Khine, Marjorie Stewart Joyner, Alexis Lewis, Ellen Ochoa

Grace Hopper, wearing her navy uniform, standing in profile to the camera. She has her right hand on one of the many dials that run across the top of the Mark I computer. She is looking at a section of the computer with many gears to move the punched tape code through the machine.

Grace Hopper

March 22, 2021 by Joyce Bedi

Throughout American history, women with diverse backgrounds and interests created inventions that change our lives every day.

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“Getting frustrated only stops you.”

Grace Hopper

When World War II began, Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992) was a PhD mathematician teaching at Vassar College. She joined the US Navy in 1943 and applied her math skills to writing code for the Mark I, a new electromechanical calculator at Harvard’s Cruft Laboratory. Hopper’s instructions for running complex computations were punched into paper tapes, like the segment from “Problem L” seen here. (Problem L calculated mathematical tables that had applications in radio, sound, and frequency modulation.) Hopper was one of the first woman programmers. In her lifelong computing career, she pioneered ways to make communication between humans and computers more user-friendly.

archivescenter-hopper-grace-ac0324-0000036-750-inline-edit.jpg

A young navy ensign stands with his back mostly to the camera and next to Grace Hopper, wearing her navy uniform and standing in profile to the camera. She has her right hand on one of the many dials that run across the top of the Mark I computer. She and the ensign are looking at a section of the computer with many gears to move the punched tape code through the machine.

Lieutenant (j.g.) Grace Hopper and US Navy Specialist I, Third Class, Durward White inspecting the Mark I’s sequence mechanism, 1944. Grace Murray Hopper Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, AC0324-0000036. © Smithsonian Institution

archivescenter-hopper-grace-ac0324-0000028-19-750-inline-edit.jpg

A long strip of paper, about 3 inches wide. The upper and lower edges have regular rows of perforations. The center of the tape has punch holes carrying the program code. The words “Prob L” and “Tape R4A” are stamped at the top of the strip, and regularly-spaced red vertical lines have been drawn across the tape and numbered 870, 880, 890, 900, 910, and 920.

A segment of punched tape code for Problem L, run on the Mark I around 1945. Problem L calculated mathematical tables that had applications in radio, sound, and frequency modulation. Grace Murray Hopper Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, AC0324-0000028-19. © Smithsonian Institution

archivescenter-hopper-grace-ac0324-0000015-450-inline-edit.jpg

A typewritten sheet of paper delineating the work assignments on the Mark I computer for Problem L, which calculated mathematical tables that had applications in radio, sound, and frequency modulation. The last line states: computed, designed, coded, babied, nursed, pleaded with and mothered by Lt. (j.g.) Grace Murray Hopper, USNR.

A lighthearted summary of the distribution of work on Problem L, run on the Mark I around 1945. Problem L calculated mathematical tables that had applications in radio, sound, and frequency modulation. Grace Murray Hopper Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, AC0324-0000015. © Smithsonian Institution

 

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A round green metal badge, about 1.5 inches in diameter. The words “Cruft Laboratory Harvard University” are printed around the outer edge, and the words “Staff No. 62” are printed in the center of the badge.

Grace Hopper’s Cruft Laboratory ID badge. © Smithsonian Institution; 89.12792


Source for quote above: domer1987, “Oral History Interview of Captain Grace Murray Hopper by Angeline Pantages,” Domer1987’s Blog (blog), August 12, 2010, https://domer1987.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/oral-history-interview-of-captain-grace-murray-hopper-by-angeline-pantages/.

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