#frances spence

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FRANCES SPACE // COMPUTER PROGRAMMER

“She was one of the original programmers for the ENIAC (the first electronic digital computer). She is considered one of the first computer programmers in history.”

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We’re observing ENIAC day today and the people that made IT happen. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), developed at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering, was the first all electronic, programmable computer. ENIAC was formally dedicated seventy-five years ago today, on February 15, 1946.

The project was financed by the U.S. government, who wanted the technology to calculate artillery firing tables for the Army’s Ballistic Research Laboratory. It’s primary purpose after construction was in military use; one of ENIAC’s first assignments was a series of computations to determine the feasibility of the hydrogen bomb.

In the aftermath of the project, programmers Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum and Frances Bilas Spence traveled with ENIAC to its new home at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground, where they worked in training ENIAC’s new programmers.

ENIAC’s John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert resigned from the University of Pennsylvania to form the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in order to create new computer designs for both military and commercial applications, bringing with them ENIAC project team members Betty Snyder Holberton and Jean Jennings Bartik. They had hoped to bring along programmer Kay McNulty as well; she instead chose to join Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, but later joined Mauchly in a different capacity. The two married in 1948.

In 1950, the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation was sold to Remington Rand, which later merged with Sperry Corporation to become Sperry Rand, the forerunner of today’s Unisys Corporation. ENIAC developers Arthur Burks, Jeffrey Chuan Chu, Jack Davis, Harry Huskey, Frank Mural, Thomas Kite Sharpless, and Robert F. Shaw also went on to make significant contributions to the field, including to the development of early computers like EDVAC, AVIDAC, SEAC, SWAC, UNIVAC and ORACLE.

This ca. 1947 photograph shows ENIAC with project team members, and was taken at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering. It is part of Hagley Library’s  collection of Sperry Corporation, UNIVAC Division photographs and audiovisual materials (Accession 1985.261). To view more material related to ENIAC in our Digital Archive, click here.

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Frances Spence (1922-2012) is thought to be one of the first computer programmers in history. She was one of the original programmers for ENIAC, the world’s first digital computer.

She graduated from Chestnut Hill College with a degree in mathematics and physics, and began working on the ENIAC project, as part of an all-female team of six programmers. Despite their crucial role in the computer’s development, their contribution was often downplayed when the achievement was reported in the media, due to preconceived ideas that women are not interested in technology.