Here is the second installment of biographies about female computer pioneers by volunteer blogger, Heather Elizabeth Ross.

Betty Holberton(1917 – 2001)

Betty Holberton, born Frances Elizabeth Snyder, attended the University of Pennsylvania. On her first day of classes, she was reportedly told by a professor to quit wasting her time attempting a mathematics degree and stay home and raise children. Holberton instead switched her major to journalism. Holberton was later hired by the Moore School of Engineering to be one of the “computors” to work on ENIAC, the world’s first electronic digital computer. She became the Chief of the Programming Research Branch of the Applied Mathematics Laboratory at the David Taylor Model Basin in 1959. While there, she helped to develop UNIVAC, the first commercial mainframe computer, wrote the first generative programming system (SORT/MERGE), and the first statistical analysis package for the 1950 U.S. Census. Holberton worked with John Mauchly to develop the C-10 instructions for BINAC, considered one of the origins of modern programming languages. She then worked with Admiral Grace Murray Hopper to develop the early programming standards of COBOL and FORTRAN. Holberton created commands, developed the numeric keypad and is responsible for the beige color of computers. She received the Augusta Ada Lovelace Award from the Association of Women in Computing in 1997.

Jean Bartik(1924- 2011)

Jean Bartik, born Elizabeth Jennings, was one of the more frequently recognized women of the ENIAC group. After majoring in mathematics at Northwest Missouri State Teachers College, she was hired by the University of Pennsylvania to work as a programmer forArmy Ordnance at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1945. There she met Kay McNulty and with her, took a position as one of the first programmers of ENIAC. Once ENIAC became a stored computer program, Bartik continued to work on the project. She also worked on the BINAC and UNIVAC I computers. She was an editor for Auerbach Publishers, and worked for Data Decisions. Bartik earned an MS in English from the University of Pennsylvania and an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Northwest Missouri State University. Northwest Missouri State University re-named its computer museum in her honor. She received the Augusta Ada Lovelace Award from the Association of Women in Computing in 1997, was inducted into the Women In Technology International Hall Of Fame and in the same year, received the Computer History Museum Fellows Award in 2008, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award in 2009.

Today we begin posting a series of biographies on female pioneers of the computer and gaming industry written by volunteer blogger, Heather Elizabeth Ross. We hope you enjoy these accounts of the achievements of the women without whom you probably couldn’t read this!

Augusta Ada Byron Lovelace (1815-1852): Prophet of the Computer age” & First Computer Programmer

Miss Augusta Ada King was born on December 10, 1815, the only child of poet Lord Byron and Anne Isabella Milbanke. Byron and Milbanke divorced and he left England permanently, leaving Ada to be raised by her mother. Dubbed the “princess of parallelograms” by her ex-husband, Milbanke was a patron and coworker of mathematician, Charles Babbage. Ada was rigorously tutored in math and sciences to counteract any paternal tendencies.

In 1834, Ada observed Babbage’s work on the analytical engine and she soon became a contributing expert on the machine. When in 1843 Luigi Menabrea wrote a summary of Charles Babbage’s analytical engine in French, Ada comprehensively translated it, including her own notes with encouragement from Babbage. Ada’s publication is widely considered to be the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine, thus making Ada the first computer programmer.

Ada Lovelace Day was founded by psychologist Penelope Lockwood to recognize women in science, technology, engineering, and math. The Ada Lovelace Award was established by the Association for Women in Computing in 1978. In 1980 the Department of Defense named its programming language “ADA” in her honor.The British Computer Society now has awarded a medal in her name and holds annual competitions in her honor. She died in 1852 of cancer at the age of 36.

The Ladies of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer): “Computors”

Kay McNulty, Marlyn Wescoff, Fran Bilas, Ruth Lichterman, Adele Goldstine and Betty Snyder Jennings were the first “computors” who worked on ENIAC, the world’s first electronic digital computer. Housed at Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Engineering, ENIAC’s purpose was to calculate ballistic firing tables during World War II. Holding the job title of “computor,” the ladies determined the correct sequence of steps to complete the calculations for each problem and to set up the ENIAC by maneuvering 3,000 switches and 80 tons of hardware to program the ENIAC by hand.

Adele Goldstine and Betty Jennings were instrumental in programming ENIACs stored program. Goldstine wrote ENIAC’s original technical manual. Their contributions led to the first software application and the first programming classes.The ladies of ENIAC were inducted into the WITI Hall of Fame in 1997. A documentary on the women titled Refrigerator Ladies: The Untold Story of the ENIAC Programmers has been planned.