Developed and operated at MIT between the mid-1920s and mid-1970s, the Differential Analyzer, Whirlwind Computer, and Apollo Guidance Computer feature prominently in histories of computing. These were big complex projects that involved dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of people. Together these individuals created a distinctive community that was among the most important to the development of today’s digital world.

The MIT Museum has joined a growing movement that aims to build working replicas, emulators, and simulators of these historic computing machines, and our efforts have yielded new appreciation for programmers and programming. Almost everything we thought we knew has been altered by this first modest attempt to decode and interpret the “sequence of actions” that allowed inanimate machines—one small problem at a time—to help ambitious engineers who wanted to make vital contributions to the efforts to electrify a nation, create a national defense network, and land humans on the moon.