Jan 10, 2024
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Jean Bartik (1924-2011) was a programmer of ENIAC, one of the first general-purpose computers ever made. She was part of a team that developed many of the fundamentals of programming.
She studied towards a degree in Mathematics, and in 1945 became a human computer at the University of Pennsylvania, at the age of only 20. The group of six women working on ENIAC were some of the first programmers in the world.
JEAN BARTIK // COMPUTER PROGRAMMER
“She was one of the original six programmers of the ENIAC computer. Bartik studied mathematics in school then began work at the University of Pennsylvania, first manually calculating ballistics trajectories and then using ENIAC to do so. She and her colleagues developed and codified many of the fundamentals of programming while working on the ENIAC, since it was the first computer of its kind. After her work on ENIAC, Bartik went on to work on BINAC and UNIVAC, and spent time at a variety of technical companies as a writer, manager, engineer and programmer.”
On This Day in 1943, work began on ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)
The earliest programmers for the Eniac were entirely women, plucked from the ranks of the Army’s human computers. When the Army showed off the Eniac to the press, running lightning-fast ballistics-crunching algorithms, they didn’t introduce the ladies who’d written the code: Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Jean Jennings Bartik, Frances (Betty) Snyder Holberton, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Frances Bilas Spence, and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum
It's ironic that women today must fight for equality in Silicon Valley. After all, their math skills helped launch the digital age
It's ironic that women today must fight for equality in Silicon Valley. After all, their math skills helped launch the digital age
Dame of the Day: Jean Bartik Today's Dame of the Day is Jean Bartik (December 27, 1924 – March 23, 2011). After studying math in college, Bartik got a job with the U.S.
Jean Bartik (left) and Frances Bilas (right), two of the six female programmers of the ENIAC, the first functional electronic digital computer.
Goodbye Jean Bartik
The news didn't make the headlines, and I only discovered right now that Jean Bartik died this year on March 23. She was one of the ENIAC programmers, and worked on the BINAC and UNIVAC at EMCC. She was an invaluable source of information and first-hand anecdotes on all these early pieces of wizardry. Her autobiography should be published soon, I can't wait to read it.
Sources:
The ENIAC blog (link)
The New York Times (link)
Computerworld (link)
Obit of the Day: Woman's Work Building a computer is impressive. Programming the computer is even more important. Jean Batik and five other women were the minds behind the programmng for what many consider the first electric general computer, ENIAC. (Historical side note: Charles Babbage is credited with inventing the first programmable computer, but the first program was created by Ana Lovelace, daughter of the poet, Lord Byron.) Bartik, the last surviving member of the programming team, travelled to Philadelphia from Missouri to join the project. Her math background was vital as she and her colleagues found out that their job of "setting up ENIAC" took much broader skills. When the computer was first demonstrated in 1946 (originally it was supposed to be use to calculate weapon trajectories for the war) none of the women who worked on the project were introduced. After ENIAC, Bartik continued to work in programming taking part in the building of UNIVAC, the first professional computer. She left the field for a decade to raise a family and returned to spend another twenty-five years as a programmer. When she was laid off in 1985, no one would hire a 61 year old programmer so she became a realtor. (Image of women programming ENIAC courtesy of the BBC, bbc.co.uk)