While most museums protect their collections behind glass, the vintage computers and other electronic items at Living Computers: Museum + Labs were open for visitors to play, code, and learn.
Last week, it was confirmed that the South Seattle Museum, which housed Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen’s collection of vintage computers and Internet technology, would permanently close its doors and that at least some of his objects would be put up for auction.
The museum closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopened.
Housed in a beige, industrial-looking building on First Avenue South, the museum opened in 2012 and was known for its hands-on exhibits. Allen, an avid collector and philanthropist whose life’s work also led to the creation or support of Seattle institutions like the Museum of Pop Culture and Cinerama, died in 2018 of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He announced in 2010 that he would donate the majority of his fortune through the Giving Pledge, and a portion of his estate has since been auctioned off.
Rich Alderson, a former senior engineer at the museum, worked closely with Allen and looked after his private collection of computers and mainframes at Allen’s company, Vulcan.
Alderson was one of the first people involved in the project that eventually became the museum. Before the museum existed, Allen had a website called PDPplanet.com that chronicled his collection of mainframes and minicomputers from Digital Equipment Corporation. Allen approached Alderson and his colleagues and asked if they thought people would come to a physical museum of the collection.
“We started exploring this question and in 2008 we renamed the website Livingcomputers.org and started transforming his private collection into something that could be displayed in a museum, that people could come in and touch and use,” Alderson said.
The museum opened in October 2012, with vintage computer tables ready for use, and continued to grow over the next eight years.
In 2016, the museum added a second floor dedicated to new technologies, including virtual reality, self-driving cars, robotics, and computer-generated art and music. The museum also added educational labs and temporary exhibits.
Exhibition designer Margaret Middleton created one of these experiences in 2017 for the museum. Its temporary exhibit, “Barbie Gets With the Program,” tells the story of women in computing from the 1960s to the present, using toy computers designed for Barbie dolls and the real-life machines they were based on.
Middleton wrote in an email to The Seattle Times that the archive was a celebration of femininity, women and computer engineering, and that the Living Computers: Museum + Labs honored that vision.
“LCM remains the only museum client I have worked for that not only allowed but encouraged visitors to use objects from the collection, a true demonstration of trust in museum visitors that let them know the collection was really for them,” Middleton wrote. “I’m sad to see the museum close, it was such an inspiring model.”
Alderson shares similar sentiments about the closure. He continued to work at the museum until 2020, when it closed due to the pandemic. Alderson said the institution had originally planned to reopen at a later date, but that didn’t happen.
“As of June 1, 2020, all engineers except the engineering manager have been laid off. The archivist stayed on for about a year, just completing documentation and other tasks, and then she was let go,” Alderson said.
Museum employees were initially told to anticipate a 12 to 18 month closure, which Alderson said would turn into a two to three year closure.
“The heartbreaking thing is that the museum will never reopen,” he said.
It is not yet clear how many or which items from the museum will be sold at auction. But one of the pieces of vintage computer equipment confirmed for sale is the museum’s DEC PDP-10:KI-10 computer from 1971 – a type of computer that Allen and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates used. honed their programming skills.
Alderson remembers working with Allen and the late technical director Robert Michaels on this computer in the museum space before its official opening.
“Paul used to show up sometimes, because he could. He came in at 5 o’clock one evening while I was debugging things, and he came and sat down, and the three of us stayed there until about 9 o’clock,” Alderson said. “He ordered a pizza and we had a great time debugging.”
Alderson said he wasn’t sure what Allen would think about the museum closing.
“It was always one of his happy moments,” Alderson said. “It’s hard to say how he would react.”
Upcoming Auction
There are three upcoming auctions at Christie’s Americas of items from Allen’s estate, ranging from computer equipment to historical documents.. According to a press release, the auctions will take place this fall and will cover different topics:
- Premieres: The History of Computing, an online sale that ends September 12
- Pushing the boundaries: Ingenuity, a live auction on September 10
- Over the Horizon: Art of the Future, an online sale that ends September 12.
Among the items up for sale are Allen’s interests in technology, space exploration and art, such as a signed letter from Albert Einstein to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Gemini space suit owned by Ed White and the painting by Chesley Bonestell, “Saturn seen from Titan”.
Auction house Christie’s has handled past auctions of Allen’s items, including a 2022 auction that was the most successful single-owner art auction in the world , raising $1.62 billion.
Marc Porter, chairman of Christie’s Americas, said in an interview with the Times that auctions like these allow people to get a glimpse into the mind of a public figure through their belongings, while also honoring their wishes after their death, like Allen’s philanthropic efforts.
“A lot of the auctions we do are philanthropic in nature, and those are some of our best sales,” Porter said. “Honoring the legacy of collectors and the collections that come to us is what we love to do, and I think it’s what we do best.”
Asked about the decision to close the museum and the future of its artifacts, a representative for the Vale Group, Allen’s company formerly known as Vulcan, wrote in a statement to the Times that the auction of part of Allen’s estate honors the founder’s wishes after his death.
“Paul anticipated that things would change after his death and, as we have previously stated, he devoted most of his fortune to philanthropy,” the statement said. “All estate administration efforts, including the Gen One auction with proceeds to be directed to philanthropy, are consistent with Paul’s wishes, his estate plan and fiduciary principles. »
The statement does not specify which charities the profits will be donated to.
According to the Vale Group, some of the museum’s programs were acquired by the nonprofit SDF.org, including the museum’s remote emulated systems. Emulated systems are vintage models of computers and operating systems that allow the user to run programs as if their device were the machine itself.
Christie’s website currently lists only four items in its auction preview, and no full catalogue has been announced. A link on Christie’s website allows you to sign up for email updates.
It is unclear what will happen to the museum’s other items, including objects and devices that were previously donated.
In an email to The Times, Gordon Steemson, a member of the Seattle Retro-Computing Society, wrote that other members worry about the future of the items they have donated and are unsure whether they will be sold to the auction, leading people to try to contact the museum since last week’s announcement.
“At least one of our members is trying to get the item he gave him back for this reason – no response from the board yet, but it’s only been a short while.” Steemson wrote.