Jules Richardson wrote on "Digital Archaeology of the Microcomputer, 1974-1994

[William Donzelli]

> Well, if you adopt the "only historically significant" things are to
> be collected mantra, you never would have had something like the Henry
> Ford Museum in Michigan.  *All* of the stuff he amassed for that
> collection was considered not historically significant at the time.
> Now its amazing to be able to walk down an aisle and see the evolution
> of the sewing machine, or the dishwasher or the clothes washer/dryer,
> etc.

Keep in mind, however, that the artifacts that he did save are the
better examples from the group - it was not picked willy-nilly. For
example, with the stoves, the timeline has the upper tier stuff (like
the Chambers slate lined oven from 1948) rather than being overrun
with crappy no-name brands.

The same is true for computer collections. Yes, you could collect
every model of PDP-11, but when it comes down to it, only a few really
are worthwhile for the long run. And now the room is filled with
PDP-11s, and you can not fit a PDP-10 in the collection.

--
Will