Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Goldberg, Adele, 1945-
- Abstract:
- The Adele Goldberg papers consist of Goldberg’s working files related to the development and licensing of Smalltalk, a programming language she co-developed at Xerox PARC, plus periodicals, books, manuals, conference material, and reports related to object-oriented programming and other computer science topics Goldberg was interested or involved in. The collection also contains videotapes of some of Goldberg’s public talks. Records date from 1973 to 2010, with the bulk of material from 1973 to 1998.
- Extent:
- 15.209 Linear feet, 12 record cartons, 1 half manuscript box
- Language:
- and The collection is primarily in English, with a small amount of material in Japanese and French.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of Item], [Date], Adele Goldberg papers, Lot X5774.2010, Box [#], Folder [#], Catalog [#], Computer History Museum.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Adele Goldberg papers contain Goldberg’s working files relating to the programming language Smalltalk; periodicals, manuals, and other publications she collected throughout her career; and material relating to conferences and other events she participated in. The records span 1973 through 2010 with the bulk of the collection being from 1973 to 1998.
Goldberg’s Smalltalk files document the development, licensing, and documentation of various versions of Smalltalk – from its beginnings at Xerox PARC to its licensing and use elsewhere. Her collection of periodicals, books, and manuals form a comprehensive body of knowledge on object-oriented programming (OOP) and also on what Xerox PARC was researching and developing throughout the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s.
Conferences and events relating to object-oriented programming and other facets of Goldberg’s work are also well-documented in this collection. Aside from the textual conference proceedings and material, there are videos of Goldberg’s public talks contained in this collection’s unprocessed audiovisual material – including keynote speeches at ACM’s 1986 SIGCHI (Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction) and the 1989 SCOOP conference.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Adele Goldberg was born July 7, 1945, in Cleveland, Ohio. She received a BA in mathematics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a master’s in information science from the University of Chicago. In 1969, Goldberg began studying for her PhD in information science at Stanford University as a visiting University of Chicago student; she then became a research associate at Stanford while working on her dissertation. She earned her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1973.
After receiving her PhD, Goldberg went to work at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC) as a laboratory and research associate, and in 1979 she became the manager of its System Concepts Laboratory. At Xerox PARC, Goldberg was a co-creator of the highly influential programming language Smalltalk-80, along with Alan Kay, Dan Ingalls, and other designers. The first object-oriented programming language, Smalltalk introduced many of the characteristics seen in personal computers today, including the graphical user interface, overlapping windows, point-and-click menus, dragging and dropping, and icons. Goldberg wrote much of the documentation for Smalltalk-80, including the books Smalltalk-80: The Language and Its Implementation (1983), Smalltalk-80: the Interactive Programming Environment (1984), and Smalltalk-80: The Language (1989), co-written with David Robson and considered the definitive books on the subject.
From 1984 to 1986, Goldberg was the president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). In 1988, she co-founded a spin-off business from Xerox called ParcPlace Systems that commercialized Smalltalk-80 and provided licensing of and support for it. She left ParcPlace in 1995, and in 1999 she co-founded the technological consulting firm Neometron. She has also acted as CTO for various companies, served on advisory boards, and designed online college courses in math and science.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Adele Goldberg, 2009.
- Processing information:
-
Collection processed by Bo Doub and Kim Hayden, 2015.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is arranged into 5 series:
Series 1, Smalltalk, 1973-2010, bulk 1973-1995
Series 2, Periodicals, technical papers, and articles, 1973-1998
Series 3, Conferences, workshops, and symposia, 1974-2000
Series 4, Books and manuals, 1978-1996
Series 5, Unprocessed AV material, 1978-1997
Series 6, Unprocessed software, 1995
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
The Computer History Museum (CHM) can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claims of the copyright holder. Requests for copying and permission to publish, quote, or reproduce any portion of the Computer History Museum’s collection must be obtained jointly from both the copyright holder (if applicable) and the Computer History Museum.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of Item], [Date], Adele Goldberg papers, Lot X5774.2010, Box [#], Folder [#], Catalog [#], Computer History Museum.
- Location of this collection:
-
1401 Shoreline Blvd.Mountain View, CA 94043, US
- Contact:
- (650) 810-1010