The Herbert Stoyan collection on LISP programming contains materials documenting the origins, evolution, and use of the LISP programming language and many of its applications in artificial intelligence. Stoyan collected these materials during his career as a researcher and professor, beginning in the former German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) and moving to the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) in 1981. Types of material collected by Stoyan include memoranda, manuals, technical reports, published and unpublished papers, source program listings, computer media (tapes and flexible diskettes), promotional material, and correspondence. The collection also includes manuscripts of several books written by Stoyan and a small quantity of his personal papers.

Herbert Stoyan was born in 1943 in what was to become East Germany. Stoyan received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Technical University Dresden in 1970 and joined an artificial intelligence (AI) group led by Egbert Lehmann at Robotron. Stoyan implemented the LISP system that was used for all AI work in East Germany, working only from the book The Programming Language LISP: Its Operation and Applications (see Bibliography below). In 1977 he became interested in LISP history; publishing a book on LISP and its history in 1979. In 1981 he moved to West Germany and changed his career from industrial research to university teaching. In 1986 he became Professor of Information Sciences at the University of Konstanz, in 1989 he became Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies in Darmstadt, and in 1990 he became Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Erlangen. He published papers on LISP history in 1984 and 1991 and a two-volume book Programmiermethoden der Künstlichen Intelligenz [Programming Methods of Artificial Intelligence] in 1991. Stoyan retired in 2008.

105 linear feet 160 boxes

The Computer History Museum can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claims of the copyright holder. Permission to copy or publish any portion of the Computer History Museum's collection must be given by the Computer History Museum.

Collection is open for research.