Stanford University Housing Historical Archive of Apple Documents

[MacRumors]

The Associated Press was recently given access to Stanford's Silicon Valley Archives which houses the largest collection of history on Apple. The collection of historical documents and videos was originally maintained by Apple with plans to make a company museum. Shortly after Steve Jobs' return in 1997, Apple contacted Stanford University and offered to donate the entirety of the collection to the school's Silicon Valley Archives.

The collection, the largest assembly of Apple historical materials, can help historians, entrepreneurs and policymakers understand how a startup launched in a Silicon Valley garage became a global technology giant.

The collection takes up more than 600 feet of shelf space, but is not open to the public.

Amongst the archives:

- Thousands of photos by photographer Douglas Menuez, who documented Jobs' years at NeXT Computer, which he founded in 1985 after he was pushed out of Apple.
- A company video spoofing the 1984 movie "Ghost Busters," with Jobs and other executives playing "Blue Busters," a reference to rival IBM.
- Handwritten financial records showing early sales of Apple II, one of the first mass-market computers.
- An April 1976 agreement for a $5,000 loan to Apple Computer and its three co-founders: Jobs, Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, who pulled out of the company less than two weeks after its founding.
- A 1976 letter written by a printer who had just met Jobs and Wozniak and warns his colleagues about the young entrepreneurs: "This joker (Jobs) is going to be calling you ... They are two guys, they build kits, operate out of a garage."

There's no indication when or if Stanford plans to make the documents available for public viewing.

Article Link: Stanford University Housing Historical Archive of Apple Documents

 

[Small White Car]

Cool stuff.

The preservation of recent history is a somewhat thankless job. Most people don't find it too interesting, but without people saving recent history we'd have no museums full of ancient history. So good for them.

 

[kjs862]

That was a pretty nice video. No social networking, or reality tv.

 

[Krazy Bill]

There's no indication when or if Stanford plans to make the documents available for public viewing.

Uh... then what's the point of pack-ratting this stuff?

 

[gugy]

Apple should work out with Stanford to make some sort of museum and allow this information to be accessed online for free.
That for sure would give meaning.

 

[LimeiBook86]

Apple should work out with Stanford to make some sort of museum and allow this information to be accessed online for free.
That for sure would give meaning.

That would be cool. The Ghostbusters (Blue Busters) video I'm sure would be funny to watch and needs to be shared!

 

[MacFan782040]

It would be cool if some of Steve's money left behind in his will went to making an Apple/early PC museum, maybe in cooperation with Stanford or another University. I for one would be interested in visiting this if I was visiting the bay area.

 

[theheadguy]

...A 1976 letter written by a printer who had just met Jobs and Wozniak and warns his colleagues about the young entrepreneurs: "This joker (Jobs) is going to be calling you ... They are two guys, they build kits, operate out of a garage..."

I've saw this letter on another news site yesterday, really funny. It said a bit more, something like "they aren't willing to show us what they are working on. Beware."

Ahh, found it.

 

[daxomni]

...offered to donate the entirely collection...

Um, what?

It would be cool if some of Steve's money left behind in his will went to making an Apple/early PC museum, maybe in cooperation with Stanford or another University.

Or on researching and eventually reversing America's ever increasing cancer rates.

 

[goodcow]

Hopefully they've already started digitizing this stuff in case of a natural disaster.

 

[hoing]

Really Apple? couldnt afford Harvard? Pathetic.

 

[iMacC2D]

Removed.

 

[Navdakilla]

That would be cool. The Ghostbusters (Blue Busters) video I'm sure would be funny to watch and needs to be shared!

Hahah ya. That would be cool

 

[bdavis89]

Anyone else notice that whenever Apple's history is discussed its "Jobs was kicked out in '85, founded NEXT, returned in '97, invented the iPod, etc." Its more of a Steve Jobs history than anything else. I know more about what NEXT did between 1985 and 1997 than I know what Apple did in that same time period...

 

[Rocketman]

Printing is a central tennet of the Apple meme. That guy made a HUGE (world class) mistake. All he really had to do was have harsh credit terms. Oh, well, he is history anyway. Apple ain't.

Rocketman

 

[cvaldes]

Really Apple? couldnt afford Harvard? Pathetic.

I will point out that the Jobs family has an actual connection with Stanford: Laurene Powell Jobs attended Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Steve and his eventual wife actually met on the Stanford campus. He was lecturing at the time while she was wrapping up her MBA degree. She is an alumna of Stanford University.

 

[sessamoid]

Anyone else notice that whenever Apple's history is discussed its "Jobs was kicked out in '85, founded NEXT, returned in '97, invented the iPod, etc." Its more of a Steve Jobs history than anything else. I know more about what NEXT did between 1985 and 1997 than I know what Apple did in that same time period...

Most of what apple did in those years can be summed up as

1- lost market share and
2- failed to make any significant progress on creating the operating system for the future.

 

[ProVideo]

Most of what apple did in those years can be summed up as

1- lost market share and
2- failed to make any significant progress on creating the operating system for the future.

That's ridiculous revisionism.

 

[MacSince1990]

Uh... then what's the point of pack-ratting this stuff?

Yeah well, Stanford's never been known for being generous. They're just kind of douchey.

----------

Most of what apple did in those years can be summed up as

2- failed to make any significant progress on creating the operating system for the future.

Um. Between 1985 and 1997?

Please sit yourself down at a computer running System 7, and then try running Windows 3.1. Mac OS 8 and Windows 95.

You're obviously a bandwagon Mac user, who was either too poor to too stupid to buy Macs in the 90s.

 

[the8thark]

Most of what apple did in those years can be summed up as

1- lost market share and
2- failed to make any significant progress on creating the operating system for the future.

Semi wrong and wrong. I'll fix it up for you.

1- lost market share in most segments but kept and gained market share in the education and creative professional sectors

2- Made a good OS but cause of point 1 was not very wide spread.

 

[weing]

Um, what?


Or on researching and eventually reversing America's ever increasing cancer rates.

I expect on stipulation is that all of this be locked up for at least a generation or two. Past or present, Apple is certainly not company that is interested in revealing much about itself.

The cancer rates are not increasing as much as mortality rates of many other maladies have been reduced. Heredity,old age and heart disease aside, Cancer is pretty much the last thing that can kill us. There are many cancers that were 100% percent death sentences even 5-10 years ago that can now largely be stabilized. Sadly Jobs had one of the few that was not one of those.

 

[velocityg4]

Ronald Wayne's ass must be sore from how many times he must of kicked it by now.

 

[Dobiewonkanobie]

It would be cool if some of Steve's money left behind in his will went to making an Apple/early PC museum, maybe in cooperation with Stanford or another University.

Never gonna happen. Steve was always future forward and never wanted to dwell on the past. It's why he got rid of the stuff in the first place when he returned to Apple.

Something should be done though, for posterity's sake. In 2076 we're gonna look back at these past 35 years in awe, plugged in from the matrix of course.

 

[CFreymarc]

Word has it that Steve's office on the top of Infinite Loop One has been sealed since the day he passed with board members, his former personal assistant and his wife only having access. People are debating what to do with it but many believe it will end up preserved much like the way Walt Disney's office is behind glass and on public exhibition in Disneyland.

 

[orlondo]

Uh... then what's the point of pack-ratting this stuff?

The collection isn't held behind a locked door from everyone, it is a normal library special collection. Most all of it would be available to patrons of the library.

Stanford can, and will, digitize most of it, but there are far more things housed by Stanford that would be considered to have higher scholarly value or be more at-risk to deterioration. Given the choice between this and say, some of Abraham Lincoln's personal papers, I'd find it hard to give priority to this content.

Also, unless it is specifically allowed in the donor agreement between Stanford and Apple, Stanford cannot publicly share anything they digitize of the content. It will all be under copyright and require explicit permission from Apple (or whomever owns the copyright) to share. Given the time it was given to Stanford, it is very unlikely that permission to share digitally was given. The issue of copyright is the biggest hurdle with getting this kind of stuff online.