Silicon Valley's museum of itself didn't start in Silicon Valley. The Computer History Museum on Shoreline Boulevard in Mountain View got its start on the East Coast in a coat closet.
From a closet to Boston
In 1968, computer engineer Gordon Bell began building a historical collection. Around the same time, others were working to save MIT's Whirlwind computer. The resulting Museum Project held its first exhibit in 1975 in a converted coat closet in a Digital Equipment Corp. lobby. It moved to a bigger DEC lobby in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and opened to the public in 1979, took the name The Computer Museum in 1982, and moved to Boston's Museum Wharf in 1984, according to Wikipedia.
Going west
In 1996-97, a history center was set up at Moffett Field in a building NASA provided, which had once been the naval base's furniture store, and artifacts were shipped there. The Boston museum closed in 1999 and sent its remaining collection west in 2000. Because the Boston Museum of Science kept the old name, the West Coast group became the Computer History Museum. In 2002 it opened in a former Silicon Graphics building at 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. A two-year, $19 million renovation followed, and the museum reopened in January 2011.
Today
The museum describes its mission as decoding technology's 'computing past, digital present, and future impact on humanity.' It holds more than 1 million objects and hosts the 'CHM Live' series of talks. Its latest annual report highlights a popular AI exhibit and new Fellows, including Nvidia's Jensen Huang. Marc Etkind, a former NASA communications leader, became president and CEO in February 2025.