IBM Heritage

These are the stories of the people, innovations and values that have defined IBM for over a century, and the tales of how IBM helped pioneer the information technology industry

IBMers

IBM’s greatest asset is the IBMer. Together, we drive progress through meaningful innovation and action.

Collection overview

IBM's first woman vice president, Ruth Leach, and IBM president Thomas J. Watson Sr. in 1940

IBM leaders

From two generations of Watsons to the present-day executives, strong leaders have been fundamental to IBM’s success.

Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Roher, winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1986, with a scanning tunneling microscope

IBM researchers

The world’s premier corporate research institution depends entirely on the talent, curiosity and ambition of its people.

Frances Allen, the first woman Fellow at IBM

Women in technology

Relentless efforts to build a diversified workforce have paid huge dividends in innovation.

Inside IBM

IBM has been able to keep performing and innovating because of its deeply ingrained company culture and commitment to its values.

Collection overview

Tabulator from 1890: a wooden piece of equipment about the size of an upright piano, with dials and a card punch, and a smaller wooden console

IBM origin story

A company once known for its tabulators and clocks came to dramatically shape our modern world.

Irene Kushner visits former colleagues Reta Bird and Alice Churnetski in wire wrapping area at Endicott, 1963

Corporate culture

A culture based on belief in the potential of people has guided and sustained IBM through a century of change.

IBM rebus by Paul Rand, composed of illustrations of an eye, a bee, and the "8-bar" M, circa 1981

IBM design

"Good design is good business" is the company’s approach to developing products, spaces and solutions that harmonize industry and art.

Black IBMers Bill McDonald, Wylene Stone, Leroy Stukes, Denise Cartier, Ray Leath and Henry Willis, on a rooftop in Brooklyn in 1977

Diversity, equity and inclusion

Respect for the individual underscores IBM’s leadership in hiring practices, social rights and technology development.

Advancing humanity

Through advancements in technology and partnerships with government and the private sector, IBM continues to have a positive global impact.

Collection overview

A woman in a red convertible uses an IBM 3624 Drive-up ATM

IBM in everyday life

From finance to retail to transportation: systems that make modern life work.

An 8-inch IBM 4929 floppy diskette being removed from its paper sleeve

Information

Innovative tools, methods and rules to govern information storage, access, retrieval and privacy.

The Power7 hardware that enabled Watson to win on television's Jeopardy! in 2011

Artificial intelligence

IBM has been pioneering AI systems since before the technology had fully escaped the realm of science fiction.

The letters "IBM" inscribed on a human hair by a laser beam

Research

A persistent commitment to scientific exploration has yielded world-changing discoveries and given rise to entire industries.

An exhibit sign for the 25th Anniversary of FORTRAN

Technology platforms

IBM introduced the platform business model — and many productivity tools that the world relies on to this day.

Instrument Unit (IU 513) under construction at the IBM Huntsville facility, to be used in the first Skylab mission in 1973

IBM in space

From the very beginning, IBM has been a driving force behind mankind’s exploration of space.

Top-down view of the Mayflower autonomous boat at sea

Unexpected places

Cultural projects have stretched the boundaries of IBM technology and helped us understand history and the world around us.

A medical technician reaches for instruments beside a conveyor belt that is delivering bottles down a chute

Healthcare

Shaping how modern healthcare works, through smart application of technology and a commitment to improving lives.

12 men in suits at tables looking at gadgets and at a chalkboard pointing to a flow chart.

Education

A long-standing focus on the importance of learning has guided IBM’s efforts to do well and to do good in the world.

Branding mark for IBM e-business, an encircled, red letter "e" intended to resemble the "@" symbol

Networks

From email to the internet, e-business and the cloud, increasing the power of technology in networked settings.

Two men wearing black IBM Service Corps t-shirts sit at a table of volunteers, working

Environmental, social and corporate governance

IBM’s founding CEO aspired to make the world a better place. The company and its employees continue the effort daily.

The IBM Summit supercomputer. Multiple processing towers connected in rows

Supercomputing

A proud history of building the world’s most powerful computers.