Background of the IT History Society

Our Timeline

IT History Society, Inc. traces its organizational heritage to 1977. Over time, the organization’s identity and programs have evolved to meet the changing needs of the IT history community—first by supporting scholarship and archival preservation, later by expanding outreach and collaboration, and more recently by experimenting with large-scale online reference resources. As we enter the AI era, we are again refining our mission and the ways we engage members and the public.

Organizational Names and Continuity

The organization has operated under the following names:

• International Charles Babbage Society (California, 1977–1980)
• Charles Babbage Foundation for the History of Information Processing (California, 1980–2001)
• Charles Babbage Foundation (California, 2001–2007)
• IT History Society (California, 2007–2025)
• IT History Society, Inc. (New York, 2025 onward)

On October 21, 2025, the California nonprofit corporation named IT History Society merged with this New York not-for-profit corporation pursuant to a plan of merger. IT History Society, Inc. continues the charitable purposes and mission of its predecessor organizations while operating under New York law.

Era 1: 1977–2007 — Supporting Scholarship and Archives

For its first quarter century, the organization—long known as the Charles Babbage Foundation (CBF)—was closely associated with and supportive of the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI), a historical research and archives center focused on the history of computing and information technology. With CBI well established and doing excellent work, CBF broadened its mission in 2002 to support the wider IT history community. In 2007, CBF changed its name and reworked its programs to better support the expanding field of IT history.

The Charles Babbage Institute (CBI) was established in 1978 by senior executives from the information processing industry, distinguished computer scientists, and historians for the purpose of preserving, exploring, and telling the history of computing. The Charles Babbage Foundation was organized separately from CBI in 1981 when CBI moved to the University of Minnesota. CBF’s core mission during this era was to support scholarship and preservation work in the history of information technology. [See CBI Newsletter vol.3 #1 (1981)]

Around 2000, the Charles Babbage Foundation broadened its mission to support the history of information technology through other organizations, collaborating—for example—with the Sloan Foundation, the Software History Center, and the Computer History Museum in experimenting with Internet-based archival and historical research. It also advised historians, promoted collaboration among academic organizations and museums, and raised funds for scholarship. In some cases, it assisted or advised IT corporations in preparing their own histories.

In 2007, the organization entered a new phase focused on building a large, public-facing reference database of significant hardware, software, companies, and notable individuals, including an “Honor Roll,” to help document the development of information technology as both an industry and a scientific discipline. In 2015, this initiative was substantially redesigned to allow user-submitted entries and community moderation.

Over time, the database grew to over 100,000 entries. As the scope expanded, it became increasingly clear that intentional human curation is essential for accuracy, consistency, and long-term value. The Society now views the database as a significant asset with known gaps and challenges that require renewed stewardship and a clearer focus.

Throughout its history, the organization recruited trustees drawn largely from the business community who cared deeply about preserving the record of information technology. Many donated personal papers to major archival institutions, others published memoirs or histories, and some served on the editorial board of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.