Scope and Content Note
The papers of Nathaniel Rochester (1919-2001) span the years 1935-1999 and include correspondence, biographical material, data processing manuals, reports, oral history interviews, writings, photographs, certificates, and printed matter. The bulk of the collection, 1943-1977, relates to Rochester’s work with radar while an engineer at Sylvania Electric Products and his work designing computers and computer programs while employed with the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). The Sylvania material consists of tube technical data and Rochester’s circuit theory notebook relating to his radar work for the United States military. Rochester was the architect of IBM’s first general purpose electronic computer, the type 701, and devised and wrote the first symbolic assembly program for computers. The majority of the IBM papers consists of manuals about the 705 and 709 computers and COBOL and APL computer languages.
Also included among the papers is material documenting part of Rochester’s career with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he began his work on radar. The final report of the task force for Project Beacon, on which Rochester served in 1961, documents the development of the first air traffic control system for the Federal Aviation Authority. Photographs include pictures of early computers designed at IBM. Filed throughout the collection are notes of Rochester’s son, Nicholas, explaining uses for the technical data recorded in the papers and his father’s role in various projects.