The Charmed Life

This picture of the 16 month old J. Presper Eckert was taken on the beach in Atlantic City, New Jersey sometime in August of 1920. It looks like Pres, as his family called him was having a great time with his little sand shovel and bucket. Twenty five and a half years later, on February 14, 1946 the world would change forever when he and his partner, John Mauchly unveiled ENIAC at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and demonstrated for the first time the power and the promise of the electronic computer. It's one of the many amazing photos of Pres as a child I came across while organizing and documenting the items in this extraordinary collection.

This site was originally created to present some of the more interesting items that were sold at auction. Artifacts and ephemera related to Dr. J. Presper Eckert, ENIAC and the early years of the computer industry were auctioned by Skinner, Inc. in Boston on April 1, 2000 and on-line in conjunction with Lycos.

Contact Background The Past Year and a Half

The Collection