What is Living Computer Museum?

The Living Computer Museum, located in Seattle, Washington, is dedicated to preserving and displaying working examples of those computers that tell the story of our journey away from computing as a difficult and expensive undertaking toward the universal access to information technology we enjoy today.

Although we have many stories associated with the history of our systems, we believe that the best way for people to fully understand computing systems is by experiencing them. Hardware alone cannot illustrate what it was like to use these machines. Software, information, and human interaction complete the experience.

We celebrate the achievements of early computer engineers by preserving and maintaining running machines and original software, and making them available to everyone.

Our goal is to breathe life back into our machines so the public can experience what it was like to see them, hear them, and interact with them. We make our systems accessible by allowing people to come and interact with them, and by making them available over the Internet.

On any given day at the Living Computer Museum, you might see our staff working to restore our machines. That means returning the computers to their running state. We welcome you to come and visit the museum and witness these old vintage computers first hand.