Before computers

"Can man build a superman?" asks the cover of an issue of Time magazine, circa 1950. It is the oldest cover in a wall display of just under a dozen framed issues of Time. These issues span the period from that issue to the most recent one, a 2001 cover that advises "How to protect your privacy online." This display, part of "Before Computers: The Typewriter," shows the curious evolution of America's perception of the computer and the Internet. Our reactions to these supermachines have changed just as dramatically as the hardware.

Those reactions range from the 1950 issue that references building a superman (a clear reference to a military dream that drove Germany, Russia, and America starting with World War II and continuing through the Cold War) to a 1980s era issue whose cover bears a graphic of the Internet that makes it look like it involves space-traveling motherboards. Dig through your records and grab (or google) a Boston album to see approximately how Time magazine painted the mysterious Internet just 20-odd years ago.

Another wall display also deals with the way people try to visualize the invisible, endless World Wide Web. Displayed are two large images, the size and layout of classroom maps. One, from 1988, is a white-background image with little boxes of text connected via simple lines. It is more of a diagram than a map, outlining the Internet and websites of note. As pointed out in an information plaque next to the map, the University of Missouri - St. Louis has a prominent placing on the map.

Paralleling this view of the Internet is another image next to, and the same size and position as, the 1988 map. It is nearly its polar opposite, a black-background artist's rendering of the Internet throughout the world as conveyed via purple, yellow, red, and other-colored strands that snake, web, and connect in an elegant neon pattern.

This image has the startling, sharp quality of the popular classroom (and textbook) diagram showing electricity distribution throughout the world. More important, though, it is an altogether organic-looking image. It could just as easily be a web of connecting neurological fibers - a stark contrast from the plain, text-based map to its right.

"Before Computers: The Typewriter" is on display in "Grace's Place," on the second floor of the Computer Center Building. The titular Grace is Grace Murray Hopper, a beloved computer scientist whose work extended from laboratories to naval posts. During a career that spanned five decades, Hopper made breakthroughs in several fields, including the field of computer science. She is credited as the developer of the first "compiler," a basic computer piece of computer equipment, without which no modern CPU technology would be possible. She was also a computer programmer in the Navy who rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the first female Rear Admiral in 1983.

The gallery, "Grace's Place," is a fitting testament to Hopper's life and work, outlining visually and vividly how the smallest of innovations have evolved over the years to become indispensable technological aids. Computers' permeation of society is headlined in one display case that shows all of the areas of life affected by computer and Internet technology.

One shelf is entitled "Computers as Toys" and showed children's books about computers alongside Lego and doll figures with their matching miniature CPUs. Below, a shelf displayed "Personal Information Managers" as an aspect of computer use, showing everything from complex watches with calendars to Palm Pilots.

Stacked high or encased individually behind glass, typewriters abounded.

These machines, bulky yet elegant; square yet stylish, abound, spanning years of changes, additions, and other aspects of the word processor's evolution.

From the largest, most unwieldy and archaic machine to a modern, eye-catching piece of art such as the "Gingerdrive Mansion" (a house made of computer parts complete with garage, garden, and car), "Before Computers: The Typewriter" is a free, on-campus hidden gem of an exhibit.