A museum about the stylus era.
Pen-Based Computing History Museum is an independent online archive devoted to the people, products, printed matter, and ephemera of pen-based computing — the brief but fertile period that created the direct precursors to today's smartphones and touch tablets.
The museum's holdings are a working physical collection — built item by item across the years, much of it arriving firsthand as review units, press kits, and developer materials sent to the Pen-Based Computing newsletter.
Why
it matters.
The premise
Capture the era while the memory is still alive.
Pen-based computing peaked around the mid 1990s. Most of the founders, engineers, designers, and journalists are still reachable — and most of the original hardware still exists in basements and garages. The window for a first-hand archive is open, but not forever.
The method
Primary sources, plainly presented.
Every artifact is photographed, every press release is reproduced in full, every timeline entry cites its source. No ads, no analytics, and no walled garden. This is a public record of one of the most exciting times in computing history.
What
we cover.
HW
Hardware
GO's slates, GRiD, Newton, Momenta, EO, Zaurus, Windows for Pen Computing tablets, and the experimental machines that never shipped.
SW
Software
PenPoint, Newton OS, Pen for Windows, third-party apps, and the recognition engines (CalliGrapher, Longhand, InkWriter) that made pen-based computing possible.
PP
Print & press
Trade magazines, conference programs, datasheets, marketing collateral, and every press release we could find — scanned and digitized in full.
PE
People
Founders, engineers, product managers, designers, and the journalists who covered them. Profiles link out to companies, products, and collateral.
Get
involved.
Donate to the collection
Hardware, software, magazines, photos, oral histories — see the donate page for what fits and how to ship.
Send a correction
Wrong date, misattributed product, missing person? Email the page URL and the correction via the contact page.
Just talk to us
Researchers, podcasters, writers, and the simply curious are welcome. Email [email protected].
Founder
& curator.
The museum was founded and is curated by John Jerney, publisher and editor of Pen-Based Computing: The Journal of Stylus Systems (1991–1998) and mobilis: the mobile computing lifestyle magazine (1995–1998).
While producing these two publications, the team received literally thousands of items from founders, developers, vendors, public relations firms, and conference organizers. And, amazingly, we kept everything! Nothing was discarded. Nothing was lost.
Organizing and cataloging the collection — estimated at over 30,000 distinct items — is ongoing work. New artifacts are published as they are processed.