It's fun to see this, mostly because things from Rhode Island don't often end up on the NH front page :)
A related organization, the Rhode Island Computer Museum [1], is also great. Their warehouse (which is unfortunately by appointment only) is full of all sorts of really important gear from computing history. Their Learning Lab is more easily accessible, and has a few old PDPs, if I recall correctly.
I've been to the RICM and while the warehouse is kinda neat, everything is just sitting rusting. They're not doing anything with what they're sitting on, and a lot of it is very poorly protected/packaged. The warehouse was enormous, filthy, and had large doors open to the outdoors (far down the other end, but still.)
They're also (reportedly) rather anti-Apple/Macintosh.
The warehouse is like the scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where they file away the artifact into a box to be placed alongside countless shelves of other artifacts. I wouldn't say it's filthy as much as I would say it's dark and cluttered- they can really use some more structured organization and inventory management. They get donations of really large equipment, and their first priority is that it has a place where it won't be scrapped. But they have a ton of stuff, a small staff and modest budget, so they do what they can.
One story they told me is that they are contacted by TV and movie production companies that need period-specific computers and props, so they'll pack up and send out various equipment and lease them out. They come back cleaned up and in better shape than when they sent them out.
I lived for awhile in North Kingston RI and I absolutely loved the Rhode Island Computer Mueseum. It was usually staffed by older gentlemen, who would absolutely love to go into any topic related to computers they knew about. One of my now core memories is playing the original space wars on a working (only 8 remaining if i remember correctly) pdp 12 with one of my friends in elementary school.
RICM has one of those PDP-12s. And RCS/RI also has one! Two of these very rare machines, both in working condition, are located within a few miles of each other.
While housing obviously takes center stage in real estate market discussions, these quirky little elements in cities all but evaporate when you get past a certain price point. In cities I've lived in, like Boston, the areas I spent time in got so bland in a vaguely upscale, premium-end-of-mass-market sort of way. I moved to a smaller city cheap enough for people to do neat things sort of like this and will never move back to a big city while it's drowning in housing costs and a thoroughly "upmarket basic" cultural bent.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I've been in Rhode Island for a few years and never heard of this. I'll absolutely be making it to their next open house.
It does not cease to amaze me how all those large computers are less capable than their heavily miniaturized counterparts that are now part of everything. And how the most common use went from complex mathematical and scientific applications, to TikTok.
A related organization, the Rhode Island Computer Museum [1], is also great. Their warehouse (which is unfortunately by appointment only) is full of all sorts of really important gear from computing history. Their Learning Lab is more easily accessible, and has a few old PDPs, if I recall correctly.