Reconstructing the First Humanities Computing Center

FAIN: HAA-255991-17

University of South Florida (Tampa, FL 33620-9951)
Steven E. Jones (Project Director: January 2017 to May 2021)

The digital re-creation of the laboratory of pioneering digital humanities scholar Father Roberto Busa to study the methods used by his team in early computational work with scholarly texts.

In 1956, Roberto Busa, SJ, founded the first humanities computing center in Italy. After five years in other locations, the operation moved in 1961 into a former textile factory outside Milan, where IBM punched-card data processing machines were installed. There student operators worked on the Index Thomisticus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other projects, 1961-1967. We aim to digitize a key range of materials in the Busa Archive directly relevant to the establishment of the center, to augment these with oral histories of machine operators and link to punched-card machine software emulators and an immersive 3D model of the center. The goal is to begin to recover the infrastructure, workflow, and institutional contexts for this highly significant “site” (both literally and figuratively) in the history of technology and the humanities. The outcome will be increased historical understanding through the creation of models for research and learning.

Associated Products

Reverse Engineering the First Humanities Computing Center (Article)
Title: Reverse Engineering the First Humanities Computing Center
Author: Steven E. Jones
Abstract: The Jesuit scholar, Roberto Busa, is often called the founder of humanities computing. In fact, starting as early as 1949, he collaborated with IBM to perform experiments using suites of punched-card machines. These punched-card data systems—with their plug-board setups, clacking machinery, and flurries of perforated rectangular cards—were developed for business accounting and tabulating, and adapted for government censuses, defense calculations, archival management, and information processing of all kinds. The first decade of humanities computing can more accurately be described as an era of humanities data processing—in the historically specific and contextually rich sense of the term. This essay describes an ongoing collaborative project that aims to reverse engineer that center in the attempt to understand better this important site in the history of technology and humanities computing.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/12/2/000380/000380.html
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Digital Humanities Quarterly

‘A New Humanism’: Expo ’58, Roberto Busa, and the First Humanities Computing Center” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: ‘A New Humanism’: Expo ’58, Roberto Busa, and the First Humanities Computing Center”
Abstract: In 1958 Father Busa presented his work in the IBM pavilion at the World’s Fair in Brussels, Expo 58, the official motto of which was “A World View: A New Humanism.” The ambiguities and entanglements behind that demo help us to understand the emergence of Busa’s legendary Center, and shed light on at least one influential prehistory of today’s digital humanities.
Author: Steven E. Jones
Date: 11/6/19
Location: University of Luxembourg
Primary URL: https://www.c2dh.uni.lu/data/lecture-steven-e-jones-new-humanism-expo-58-roberto-busa-and-first-humanities-computing-center

“Roberto Busa, S.J.’s Literary Data Processing,” Religion and Innovation Symposium (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Roberto Busa, S.J.’s Literary Data Processing,” Religion and Innovation Symposium
Author: Steven E. Jones
Abstract: A presentation on Roberto Busa's literary data processing in the contexts of both the mid-century corporate culture of IBM and the Jesuit culture of education and invention.
Date: 04/12/2019
Primary URL: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/religion-and-innovation-tickets-57422339764#
Conference Name: Religion and Innovation Symposium, Smithsonian National Museum of American History

“N-Dimensional Modeling of the First Humanities Computing Center" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “N-Dimensional Modeling of the First Humanities Computing Center"
Author: Steven E. Jones
Abstract: “N-Dimensional Modeling of the First Humanities Computing Center,” on panel: “DH in 3D: Multidimensional Research and Education in the Digital Humanities.”
Date: 06/27/2018
Conference Name: ADHO Digital Humanities Conference, 2018, Mexico City

“Reconstructing the First Humanities Computing Center: Modeling What we Don’t know” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “Reconstructing the First Humanities Computing Center: Modeling What we Don’t know”
Abstract: Invited demo-lecture: Digital Humanities Showcase (Vitrine Humanités Numériques)
Author: Steven E. Jones
Date: 01/26/18
Location: University of Montreal

Reconstructing the First Humanities Computing Center (ReCAAL) (Web Resource)
Title: Reconstructing the First Humanities Computing Center (ReCAAL)
Author: Steven E. Jones
Author: Howard Kaplan
Author: Julianne Nyhan
Author: Geoffrey Rockwell
Author: Stefan Sinclair
Author: Marco Passarotti
Author: Paolo Senna
Author: Melissa Terras
Abstract: The primary website for the project, DHAG HAA-255991-17, "Reconstructing the First Humanities Computing Center," as described in the whitepaper.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: http://www.recaal.org
Primary URL Description: Website for the project, DHAG HAA-255991-17

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