Software, UNIVAC Tape Reel from the Internal Revenue Service
date: label: Date made
content: ca 1955
name: label: maker
content: Remington Rand Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: This reel of magnetic tape stored programs run on a UNIVAC I computer for the Internal Revenue Service. The reel is red and marked in white: UNIVAC. It also is marked: IR 97S. The other side of the reel is silver-colored. The reel is smaller (only six inches in diameter) than the other UNIVAC tape reels in the NMAH collections. It fits in a cardboard box that is marked on several sides: IR97S.
label: Description
content: The computer use was the result of activities of Ernest Enquist, the fourth director of the Statistics of Income branch of the Internal Revenue Service. When the Bureau of the Census purchased its second UNIVAC I mainframe computer in the mid-1950s, Enquist arranged to have a portion of the cost paid by the IRS. This entitled the IRS to time on the computer to run programs like those on this tape.
label: Description
content: Robert J. Tolliver, who arranged the donation in 1970, was with the statistics division of the IRS at that time.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Erica L. Neuman, "A Historical Overview of the Computerization of the Internal Revenue Service," <I>Accounting Historians Journal</I> 1 December 2023; 50 (2): 93–110.
label: Description
content: James Dalton, "SOI Trailblazers," <I>Statistics of Income: A Collection of Historical Articles</I>,2007.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Department of Treasury. Internal Revenue Service
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CI.333925
label: accession number
content: 304211
label: catalog number
content: 333925
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Mainframe Component
label: Object Name
content: software
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3/4 in x 6 in; 1.905 cm x 15.24 cm