Herman Hollerith

Herman Hollerith perfected his pioneering punched card tabulating machines in this building, creating the forerunners of today's computer systems. He moved his business here in 1892 while his early machines were at work on the U.S. census of 1890, the first major application of data processing equipment. Later he developed more automatic forms of the machines on this site, and they were employed by railroads, insurance companies, steel mills, governments, and other organizations in the U.S. and abroad, revolutionizing the way information was processed. In 1911, Hollerith sold his tabulating machine company to the firm that became IBM, which continued to use this building as a punched card plant until just before World War II.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States