What is the Babbage archive?
The History of Science Museum holds important material associated with Charles Babbage (1791 – 1871) comprising:
- components of Babbage’s first (unfinished) mechanical computing machine
- an archive of his personal notes about his machines.
The Babbage archive includes unique material, from his earliest known notes on his machines (written in 1822) to an astonishing set of core computing principles called, ‘List of operations’.
This rich resource complements the collections of Babbage’s correspondence, daybooks and engineering drawings held by the British Library and Science Museum Group.
Digitising the archive
Enabled by support from the Clay Mathematics Institute and a UKRI grant, the Museum recently undertook a project to conserve and digitise this precious archive of Babbage material. This project's purpose is to:
- preserve the most significant and unique materials from HSM’s Babbage archive
- make this invaluable but fragile archive accessible for future generations of researchers.
Donating the archive
The Babbage archive is catalogued under ‘MS Buxton’, relating to the family who donated it.
Harry Wilmot Buxton (1805-1880) was a lawyer who worked closely with Babbage and intended to write his biography. In 1939, Buxton's granddaughter E. M. Buxton deposited at the Museum the Babbage archive inherited from her grandfather.
You can find descriptions of the archive material on our online platform, Collections Online.
Imagining AI
In September 2022, the Museum collaborated with the Bodleian Libraries, Faculty of History, and Mathematical Institute on Imagining AI.
This cross-disciplinary project placed artificial intelligence in its historical context through displays of Babbage’s earliest plans for computers, Ada Lovelace’s ‘first programme,’ and Stanley Jevons’ remarkable mechanical ‘reasoning piano’ from the 1860s CE.
Visit the Mathematical Institute's Imagining AI resource to learn more and listen to talks delivered as part of the Imagining AI workshop.
Viewing the archive
The digitisation process is complete and you can preview the digitised materials using the links below.
Researchers who would like access to the material in person can email their request to: collections@hsm.ox.ac.uk
August 2024
