We’re lucky to enjoy dozens of famous museums in the Bay Area, but Mountain View’s Computer History Museum (CHM) is something of a hidden gem. It’s dedicated to the history of computing, preserving over a million artifacts that demonstrate how the computing revolution has reshaped society.
The institution began as part of “The Computer Museum” in Massachusetts in the 1970s before moving its core collection to Silicon Valley in the 1990s. The CHM ultimately opened in its current building, a former Silicon Graphics headquarters, in 2002.
2,000 years of computing history
The Computer History Museum claims to hold the largest collection of computing artifacts on the planet, comprising over a million items, including hardware, software, documentation, images, and media.
On display are numerous iconic computing machines, presented alongside early calculators and mechanical devices such as abacuses and slide rules, as well as generations of tech ranging from gaming consoles to PCs.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of the coolest stuff you can find in the CHM:
- Apple I, a hand‑built PC designed by Steve Wozniak in 1976, which became Apple’s first product and started the home computing revolution
- Cray-1 and Cray-2 supercomputers, high-performance machines from the 1970s with a distinctive cylindrical bench design
- Early Google server racks, showing the improvised, custom hardware that powered Google’s first infrastructure
- Colossus artifacts, which tell the story of the top-secret British WWII codebreaking computer
- ENIAC components, parts of a room-sized, post-WWII American computer that operated with thousands of vacuum tubes
- Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2, a 5-ton, 8,000-part machine designed by Charles Babbage between 1847-1849, which remained unbuilt until 2002
The museum’s signature permanent exhibit, Revolution: The First 2,000 Years of Computing, spans 25,000 square feet and traces computing history from ancient calculation tools to modern supercomputers.
Other exhibitions include a showcase of Apple prototypes, an examination of chatbots, and several demo labs where you can see some of the machines in action.
Visiting the Computer History Museum
You can reach the Computer History Museum from San Francisco in about 45 minutes by car.
📍 Location: 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA 94043
🕜 Hours: Open from 10am to 5pm, Wednesday through Sunday (closed Mondays and Tuesdays)
🎟️ Tickets: General admission costs $21.50, but there are discounts available for seniors, students, youth, military, and educators. Admission is free for children 0-7.
🌐 Website: ComputerHistory.org
