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Guide to the John C. McPherson collection
X3853.2007
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Title: John C. McPherson collection
Identifier/Call Number: X3853.2007
Contributing Institution:
Computer History Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
9.17 Linear feet,
7 record cartons and 1 manuscript box
Date (bulk): Bulk, 1950-1971
Date (inclusive): 1921-1993, Bulk 1950-1971
Abstract: The John C. McPherson collection contains materials from McPherson's career at IBM, which lasted from 1930 to 1971. During
his time at IBM, McPherson witnessed and participated in IBM's shift from punched card machines to electronic computers and,
at the end of his career, became a key supporter of the programming language APL (A Programming Language). Materials include
manuals, papers, and administrative records relating to APL; conference proceedings — including materials from the Joint Computer
Conference, of which McPherson served as chairman in 1951; technical papers and articles written by McPherson, Kenneth E.
Iverson, and others; IBM administrative records reflecting policies and projects spanning four decades; personal papers and
correspondence, including letters between McPherson and Thomas J. Watson, Jr.; and manuals and books published by IBM, MIT,
and the Harvard University Computation Laboratory. The records span 1921 through 1993, with the bulk of the collection being
from 1950 to 1971.
creator:
McPherson, John C., 1908-1999
The collection is open for research.
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.
[Identification of Item], [Date], John McPherson Collection, Lot X3853.2007, Box [#], Folder [#], Catalog [#], Computer History
Museum.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Ray Polivka, 2001.
Shortly after this collection was donated, a small amount of material was processed and cataloged at the item level. The majority
of this collection, however, was processed and cataloged at the folder level by Bo Doub and Kim Hayden in 2015.
John C. McPherson was born in Short Hills, New Jersey, on October 16, 1908. He graduated from Princeton University in 1929,
receiving a BS in electrical engineering. In 1930, McPherson started his long career at IBM, initially working as a trainee
in its Railroad Department. McPherson worked in this department for seven years developing systems to provide statistics about
the movement of freight and passengers, including a widely-used set of charts called Machine Methods for Railroad Accounting.
In 1940, McPherson was promoted to Manager of Future Demands and from 1943 to 1946 he worked as IBM's Director of Engineering.
During these years McPherson was instrumental in the establishment of a punched card computing facility at the Aberdeen Proving
Grounds Ballistic Research Laboratory and also in planning the development of the IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator
(SSEC).
In 1948, McPherson was elected an IBM vice president. Other milestones in McPherson's career include acting as chairman of
the 1951 Joint Computer Conference and becoming the first director of IBM's graduate-level Systems Research Institute (SRI)
from 1960-1965. In his later years at IBM, McPherson focused on the business, marketing, and advancement of APL, the programming
language developed by Kenneth E. Iverson in the 1960s. McPherson retired in 1971, but stayed in contact with many IBM projects
and colleagues until his death in 1999.
Scope and Content of the Collection
The John C. McPherson collection is made up of technical papers and reports, conference proceedings, manuals, books, personal
papers, and IBM administrative records from 1921 to 1993, with the bulk of the material from 1950 to 1971. A large part of
this collection focuses on McPherson's interest in and support of the programming language APL, and includes APL and APL2
manuals and technical papers about the language.
The collection is arranged into 6 series:
Series 1, APL, 1952-1991, bulk 1967-1983
Series 2, Conference proceedings, 1946-1991, bulk 1952-1956
Series 3, Technical papers and articles, 1921-1989, bulk 1952-1962
Series 4, IBM administrative records, 1938-1993, bulk 1942-1965
Series 5, Personal papers, 1933-1993, bulk 1960-1980
Series 6, Books and manuals, 1924-1983, bulk 1956-1966
Electronics components, the bulk of the donated photographs, and an APL data cartridge were separated from the main collection.
To view catalog records for the separated items please search CHM's online catalog at
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search.
Cuthbert C. Hurd papers, Lot X2772.2004, 102733944, Computer History Museum.
Harwood G. Kolsky papers, Lot X3021.2005, 102658131, Computer History Museum.
Related Collections at Other Repositories
John McPherson, an oral history conducted in 1992 by William Aspray, IEEE History Center, Hoboken, NJ.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Iverson, Kenneth E.
McPherson, John C.
Watson, Thomas J., 1914-1993
APL (Computer program language)
Computer Industry
International Business Machines Corporation
Punched card systems