Stanford Libraries receives an important East Asian information technology collection

STANFORD, Calif., May 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Thomas S. Mullaney East Asian Information Technology History Collection, a one-of-a-kind collection capturing an important part of IT history largely unknown in the West, is now part of the Special Collections at Stanford Libraries. The Mullaney collection is multi-faceted and multi-dimensional, containing rare Chinese and Japanese typewriters and computers as well as technical and archival documents.

"Unlike the history of the information age in the West, which enjoys extensive museum and archival collections, nothing comparable is available to the historian of the information age in East Asia," said Tom Mullaney, professor of history at Stanford, during an interview with the Beijinger.

Mullaney donated more than 2000 items to Stanford Libraries, dating from the turn of the twentieth century to the present age of computing. It documents the modern history of Chinese and East Asian telegraph codes, typewriters, printing, mimeographs, word processors, computers, and a host of other Chinese information technologies.

Within the collection, Mullaney found numerous connections to Stanford, including Chinese-language user manuals for PCs manufactured by Cromemco, a company founded by two Stanford students and named after their dorm Crothers Memorial.

"We intend to invest modestly and selectively to build upon the Mullaney collection by expanding its Japanese holdings and establishing a Korean section," said Michael A. Keller, vice provost and the Ida M. Green University Librarian at Stanford. Keller notes that the collection will cut across several collecting areas within Stanford Libraries, including but not limited to its East Asia Library and the Silicon Valley Archives. Mullaney will advise on the expansion of the collection.

A professor of Chinese history at Stanford since 2006, and a Guggenheim Fellow, Mullaney's award-winning books include Coming to Terms with the Nation: Ethnic Classification in Modern China (UC Press, 2010) and The Chinese Typewriter: A History (MIT Press, 2017). His edited volumes include The Chinese Deathscape: Grave Reform in Modern China (Stanford University Press, 2019) and Your Computer Is on Fire (MIT Press, 2021). He also directs Stanford's Digital Humanities Asia program and curated a museum exhibition, Radical Machines: Chinese in the Information Age, which according to Mullaney was "the first exhibition in history to be dedicated to modern Chinese information technology."

"As an academic library we collect so the past can be examined, new questions asked and ultimately new discoveries made," notes Keller. "The Mullaney collection is ripe for exploration and the Stanford Libraries are pleased to be the stewards of this important contribution to history."

CONTACT:
Gabrielle Karampelas
16504929855
[email protected]

SOURCE Stanford Libraries

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