The project identified hundreds of historically significant ICT artifacts, from PDP-8 minicomputers to DECtalk devices, ensuring evidence of Reading’s digital heritage is safeguarded for future generations.
Preserving Reading’s Digital Story: A Community Effort
The Reading Digital Revolution project has transformed how we collect and share the town’s ICT heritage. Through partnerships, community engagement, and targeted research, we’ve secured hundreds of historically significant artefacts—from pioneering DEC systems and rare processors to personal memorabilia and ephemera. These objects tell the story of Reading’s rise as an ICT hub and safeguard material that might otherwise have been lost.
Objects on display in Reading's Digital Revolution Exhibition
Working with The National Museum of Computing and former DEC employees, we surveyed over 500 individuals and 50 tech companies, mapping privately held collections and creating a rich evidence base for future interpretation. Many items loaned for the exhibition are now on track for permanent donation, ensuring long-term preservation.
Highlights include the Geoff Shingles archive, now catalogued at Berkshire Record Office, and a restored DECtalk machine—famously linked to Stephen Hawking—used to inspire new creative works.
The DECtalk machine, famously associated with Stephen Hawking, was restored by volunteers at the Reading Repair Café
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The restored DEC Talk machine was then used by musician Peter Doyle to produce a new musical composition inspired by the Reading Digital Revolution project—demonstrating the creative and educational value of the collection and its community impact
This project has strengthened Reading Museum’s capacity to collect, interpret, and share digital heritage, embedding community voices and industry expertise at its heart.
By securing these artefacts and stories, we’ve built a foundation for ongoing collecting and interpretation—keeping Reading’s role in technological innovation alive for generations to come.
Return to the Reading's Digital Revolution homepage or explore the next section: Education, Young Voices & Co-Creation
