Grace Murray Hopper’s Cruft Laboratory Badge

Object Details

Description:

This metal badge reads "Cruft Laboratory, Staff No. 62, Harvard University", and was donated to the Smithsonian by Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992). Hopper had joined the United States Naval Reserves in December 1943 and attended the Naval Reserve Midshipman’s School for Women through June 1944. She was then posted to the U.S. Navy’s Computation project that was housed at the Cruft Laboratory.

Hopper had a PhD in mathematics (Yale 1934) and her assignment was to write computer code for the Mark I computer, formally known as the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator. Hopper continued working at the Harvard Computational Laboratory until 1949 although she, along with other women in the Naval Reserve, had been released from active duty in 1946.

Location:

Currently not on view

Credit Line:

Gift of Grace Murray Hopper

See more items in:

Medicine and Science: Mathematics

Computers & Business Machines

Women Mathematicians

date made:

ca 1944

ID Number:

1989.0093.01

accession number:

1989.0093

catalog number:

1989.0093.01

subject:

Mathematics

Physical Description:

metal (overall material)

Measurements:

overall: .5 cm x 5.2 cm x 5.2 cm; 3/16 in x 2 1/16 in x 2 1/16 in

Data Source:

National Museum of American History

Object Name:

badge