Lorelei says,
I found this photo in 2003 at Urban Ore, an awesome salvage, recycling, and reuse resource in Berkeley, CA. I was looking through their section of old photographs and found a couple of 8″x10″ B&W prints of women in a data center. The only identifying info I could find on them was the typewritten “MISS COMPUTER 1973” label. Sadly, i have no idea where this picture was taken.
Here’s photo 1, and here’s photo 2.
Reader comment: Dave says,
I could be wrong, but I think the woman in the photograph titled Miss Computer 1973 is Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper. She was a pioneer in computer science who invented the assembler and helped develop COBOL (more info at this link). I met her in the 1970s at the University of Rhode Island and the lady in the photo sure looks a lot like her. She was brilliant and her lecture helped inspire my budding interest in computer science.
Update: The woman in this photo is not Grace Hopper.
Reader comment: Jay says,
My guess is it is not MISS Computer as in a beautiful woman, but M.I.S.S. Computer as in a form of Materials Inventory Support System. The photo is of the computer system and the woman just happens to be standing there.