By Dr. Martin Scheele
Published 1961 by Interscience Publishers, Inc.
This book provides a brief history of the “punch-card method,” from its development for use in the 1890 U.S. Census to the widespread use of IBM punched cards at the time of its publication. It splits punch-card methods into three main categories: the Machine Punch-Card Method, The Needle Punch Card Method, and the Visual Punch-Card Method, providing detailed explanations and visual representations of each one. On display are examples of the latter two methods, each developed to help scientists with plant identification. Though they closely resemble the punched cards that were used in conjunction with early computers, these punch card keys are intended for entirely manual use, making them much more accessible and portable.
Clockwise from left:
By Donald R. Simpson and David Janos
Published 1974 by the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois
By William A. Weber and Patricia Nelson
Published 1972 by the University of Colorado Museum
By P. K. Balan Menon, A.M.N., formerly Wood Technologist
Likely published 1973 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
As opposed to the other two card keys presented here, this is an "edge-notched card” or “needle card,” system, which is sorted using a long, thin tool like a metal knitting needle.
Unprocessed material from the NYBG Institutional Archives relating to the Cooperative Park Studies Unit
Created April 27th, 1978
The use of magnetic tapes for computer information storage began in 1951 with the incorporation of magnetic tape in Presper Eckert and John Mauchly’s “pioneering” UNIVAC I computer, with sales peaking in the early 1960s before they were replaced by disk drives.
