Hunt Library displayed this Macintosh 128K, as well as other technology and curiosities present at Carnegie Mellon in the 1980s.
On Sunday, Feb. 9th, Hunt Library concluded an exhibition entitled “Like, Totally Transformative: CMU in the 1980s.” The exhibit, curated by Collections Assistant Emily Davis, art directed by Associate Director and Creative Heidi Wiren Kebe, and editorially directed by Anniversary Exhibits and Publishing Managing Editor Brad King, opened on Aug. 30, 2024.
Focusing on Carnegie Mellon’s heritage as a center of technological innovation, the exhibition featured various forms of computational technology which were being developed or used at Carnegie Mellon in the 1980s. These artifacts provided a glimpse into the rapid advancements in computing at the time and Carnegie Mellon’s role as a pioneering institution in such fields.
In addition to physical displays of hardware, the exhibition also included hours of Carnegie Mellon videos from the 1980s, including promotional and slice-of-life material.
Promotional content presented Carnegie Mellon as a somewhat humble and practical school with a blue-collar technical origin and an ongoing tradition of technical and scientific excellence. Carnegie Mellon was described as a desirable school to attend, with a growing pool of applicants, good fiscal management, and excellent job prospects for its graduates. This video described various eminent alumni, many from the School of Drama, as well as alumni successful in bureaucratic and business hierarchies.
Material also focused on the work of Carnegie Mellon President Richard Cyert, who played a crucial role in shaping the university’s technological trajectory. Under his leadership, Carnegie Mellon established the Robotics Institute, worked with IBM to create a network of thousands of personal computers on campus, and encouraged research in artificial intelligence, along with many other technological initiatives.
One video from 1987 featured Carnegie Mellon’s computer network of the time, Andrew. According to James Morris, a computer science professor featured in the video, one thing that differentiates Carnegie Mellon from other universities is that “in the first week or the first month of their education here … [students] will be told how to use the computer system, more or less like a driver’s education class” — Computing at Carnegie Mellon is more traditional than many realize. This required freshman course was called the Computing Skills Workshop at the time.
In the video, Diane Burton, a TA for this course, described how she made use of email, and how Andrew’s window-based operating system was more intuitive to use than previous types of operating systems.
Another student, Pam Reinagel, described how she used a language called “CMU Tutor” to write educational software for biology. David Miller, a history professor, demonstrated how he used the software to visualize historical census data.
In this way, Carnegie Mellon advertised how their new computer network could be used for educational purposes in a variety of disciplines — and how Carnegie Mellon was possibly the easiest place in the world to make this happen. Other media from the exhibit expounded upon similar themes.
In addition to the technological advancements, the exhibit also provided a snapshot of daily life at Carnegie Mellon. Many aspects of student life looked much the same in those days as it does now, only with apparently more laid-back students and a different university center.
By the time the exhibition concluded, it had offered visitors an engaging retrospective on a formative decade in Carnegie Mellon’s history — one that laid the groundwork for its continued prominence in the technology world. For those interested in learning more, details about the exhibit can still be found on Hunt Library’s official page.