Over the past 23+ years, PC World has published many thousands of articles. And I think I can say without contradiction that none of them have been turned into museum exhibits. Until now, that is.
Back in August, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the original IBM PC with a story called The 25 Greatest PCs of All Time, edited by Melissa Perenson. It became one of the most popular things we've ever pubished on PCWorld.com, and we heard from lots of readers. One of them was Dr. Paul Gray, whose interest in old computers is more than casual: He's the founder and curator of the Paul Gray PC Museum at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California.
Dr. Gray had an intriguing proposition: Might we be interested in letting his museum mount a show based on our story? We didn't have to think too long about that one. And today, the exhibit, 25th Anniversary of the PC: PC World's Best PCs Ever, debuted, featuring many of the 25 winners and 25 runners up we picked for our article. I was happy to be present for the grand opening.
How did Dr. Gray, a professor emeritus at Claremont, wind up with a PC museum named after him? His interest in computers dates to the 1950s, and computers he'd owned himself made up the museum's initial collection when it opened in 2001. But its permanent collection has grown to include an array of machines donated by many benefactors.
Herewith, a few photos from the show. First, three of the most important early PCs: The original IBM PC (#6 on our list), the Apple II (our #1 system ever), and the TRS-80 Model I (#16).
Here are three Apples--the II, the second-generation "desklamp" iMac, and the "Fat Mac"--plus Steve Jobs' ill-fated NeXT Cube.
Here's Dr. Gray with an Amiga 1000, a Commodore 64, a Commodore 128, and a rare Xerox 6085 (descended from the original Xerox Star, our #3 machine).
And here are Dr. Gray and me with the IBM XT, AT, and PS/2, plus a Gateway (2000) tower.
I was tickled to see our list come to life in this unique way--and if you're interested in the history of the PC and happen to find yourself in southern California (Claremont is 30 miles east of LA), you might enjoy a visit, too. Check out the Gray Museum's site for more information.
