Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Gary Morgenthaler collection
- Dates:
- 1970-2000, bulk Bulk, 1980-1990
- Creators:
- Morgenthaler, Gary, 1948-
- Abstract:
- The Gary Morgenthaler collection consists of financial, marketing, and administrative records that primarily document the operation of Relational Technology, Inc., a database management system company that Morgenthaler co-founded and was CEO and chairman of from 1980 to 1989. The collection also has a small amount of material on the company after its name was changed to Ingres Corporation in 1989, and on Tymshare and Informix, two companies Morgenthaler was associated with. There is also a small amount of books and manuals related to relational database technology.
- Extent:
- 3.75 Linear feet, 3 record cartons
- Language:
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of Item], [Date], Gary Morgenthaler collection, Lot X3708.2007, Box [#], Folder [#], Catalog [#], Computer History Museum.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Gary Morgenthaler collection consists mainly of administrative and financial records related to Relational Technology, Inc., a company Morgenthaler co-founded in 1980 and of which he was CEO and chairman until 1989, when the company changed its name to Ingres Corporation. The bulk of the Relational Technology, Inc. material in the collection spans 1980 through 1990, and includes business plans and overviews, stock and investment records, financial reports, board meeting minutes and reports, promotional material, and human resources records. A very small portion of the collection relates to the company after its 1989 name change. Of note are product development notes and several reports that analyze the company's competition.
Two folders in this collection document other companies Morgenthaler was associated with, Tymshare and Informix. The Tymshare records document the company from 1970 to 1977, while the Informix records focus on problems the company had financially and legally from 1997 to 2000, after Morgenthaler sold his company Illustra Information Technology to them in 1996.
This collection also includes books and manuals about relational technology, several of which are INGRES database user manuals. Also included are manuals for other relational databases and languages, plus books about technology and business in general.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Gary Morgenthaler was born in Erie, Pennsylvania on July 10, 1948. He attended college at Harvard University and received a BA in International Studies in 1970. After finishing at Harvard, Morgenthaler moved to California in 1970 and worked at Stanford University teaching and doing data analysis for Stanford's Institute for Math Studies in the Social Sciences. In 1973, Morgenthaler left Stanford and began work primarily as an operating systems designer at Tymshare, Inc., a company that provided popular timesharing services and third-party hardware maintenance.
Gary Morgenthaler co-founded Relational Technology, Inc. (later renamed Ingres Corporation) with Michael Stonebraker, Eugene Wong, and Lawrence A. Rowe in November of 1980, launching one of the earliest commercially supported, open-source SQL relational database management systems. Relational Technology, Inc.'s commercial version of Ingres grew out of a research project at the University of California, Berkeley. Stonebraker and Wong initiated this project in the mid 1970s, which they called University INGRES (for INteractive Graphics REtrieval System) in its early stages. Morgenthaler joined them in 1980 and was integral in securing the funding to create commercial products from the University INGRES prototype and building the company which would sell those products, Relational Technology, Inc. (RTI). Throughout the early 1980s, RTI and Oracle competed as the leading hardware-independent relational database management systems (RDBMs).
Morgenthaler became a key figure in RTI's success and began as its chief executive officer in 1983. In 1989 RTI changed its name to Ingres Corporation, and in 1990 the company was purchased by ASK Corporation. Morgenthaler left Ingres when it was purchased and started work as a venture capitalist, setting up the West Coast office of Morgenthaler Ventures, an investment firm founded by his father, David Morgenthaler, in Cleveland, Ohio. Gary Morgenthaler still works as a Partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, specializing in information technology investments.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Gary Morgenthaler, 2006.
- Processing information:
-
Collection processed by Bo Doub and Kim Hayden, May 2015.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is arranged into 3 series:
Series 1, Relational Technology, Inc. records, 1980-1996, bulk 1980-1990
Series 2, Tymshare and Informix records, 1970-2000
Series 3, Books and manuals, 1981-2000, bulk 1981-1988
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Sponsor:
- Processing of this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant.
- Date Prepared:
- May 2015
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2015-09-22T14:59-0700
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Morgenthaler identified the contents of box 2, folder 1 as sensitive material and requested those materials be closed to researchers until May 8, 2031. Otherwise, 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], Gary Morgenthaler collection, Lot X3708.2007, Box [#], Folder [#], Catalog [#], Computer History Museum.
- Location of this collection:
-
1401 Shoreline Blvd.Mountain View, CA 94043, US
- Contact:
- (650) 810-1010