Collection of ENIAC artifacts once owned by Winifred S. Jonas, one of the ENIAC's first programmers

[ENIAC.] Collection of artifacts: (1) The ENIAC Electronic Numeral Integrator And Computor [sic] developed, designed and constructed by the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania 1944. Engraved name plate on black-painted metal (probably aluminum). 120 x 210 mm. A few minor scratches. (2) "ENIAC Engineer" desk sign. Black and white plastic plaque on wooden base. 50 x 210 mm. Light wear, corners chipped. (3) ENIAC Section bank deposit book, issued by the First National Bank, Aberdeen, MD. 120 x 174 mm. Beige cloth covers, front cover with inked account information: "ENIAC Section, Winifred Jonas, Treas., c/o BRL, A.P.G. Ind." (4) 3 ENIAC input/output punch cards. 83 x 187 mm. each, one with punched holes. A few stains, mathematical calculations in ballpoint on the verso of one card. All 3 cards have ENIAC printed in small letters in their lower left margin. (5) [Mayer, Maria Goeppert (1906-72).] Painted tin cigar box, Du Maurier brand, carried by Mayer during her visit to the ENIAC in 1949, with laminated note inside providing details. 85 x 75 x 22 mm. Heavy wear, dents, paint scuffed.

Fascinating and unique collection of ENIAC artifacts once owned by Winifred S. Jonas (1925-2021), a mathematician and "human computer" at the Aberdeen Proving Ground who was one of the ENIAC's first programmers. We have never seen any comparable collections of ENIAC memorabilia on the market.

The ENIAC, designed and constructed at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Engineering, was the world's first programmable electronic general-purpose computer; it went on line in December 1945 and remained in continuous operation until 1955. In 1947 the ENIAC was moved from the Moore School to the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground, where it was used primarily to calculate artillery firing tables. Four years later President Harry S. Truman viewed the ENIAC during his 17 February 1951 visit to the APG; no. (1) is an unused name plate created for the occasion. The collection also includes an "ENIAC Engineer" desk sign (no. [2]), three ENIAC punch cards used for data input / output (no. [3]), a bank book for the APG's ENIAC section recording a single deposit of $31 (no. [4]), and a cigar tin carried by Nobel Laureate Maria Goeppert Mayer when she visited the APG in 1949 (no. [5]). Inside the tin is a laminated note reading: "This small cigar box contained very smelly small cigars—that were smoked by Dr. Maria Mayer 1949 in the outer ENIAC room (which contained the IBM printer & reader for reading data to be used in ENIAC computations.) Dr. Mayer, a Nobel prize winner in physics, gave the box to Winifred Smith (Jonas) who was a mathematician—operating hydrogen bomb research program brought from Los Alamos, N. Mex., U. of Chicago and Rand Institute, California."