A Collection of Punched Cards with Logos

Bell Telephone Laboratories GE 600

This card, probably designed in October 1965 (judging by the notation "10-65" printed on the left edge), was printed for use with the GE 600 series computers at Bell Labs.

The version of the Bell logo on this card predates the great modernization of american corporate logos in the late 1960's; although it is considerably simplified from earlier versions of the Bell logo.

This card, probably designed in December 1971 (judging by the notation "12-71" printed on the left edge), was printed for use with the same computers, and serves to illustrate the new modernized Bell System logo. The card has also been simplified by eliminating the self interpreting features of the older card. A high resolution scan is available.

A Burlington Northern Detail Card

The Burlington Northern began operation in 1970, when use of punched-cards was the expected tool for data processing. The Burlington-Northern logo on this card is an excellent example of a modernized corporate logo from the that era, although one of its predecessors, the Chicago-Burlington and Quincy Railroad, had used a modern style of logo for most of the past century. Today, the modern logo of the BNSF railroad is something of a retro design, harking back to the old Santa-Fe railroad logo. A high resolution scan is available.

Burroughs Corporation

Burroughs certainly used Gardner-Denver semi-automatic wire-wrap machines to build their own mainframes of the late 1960's, and they probably sold wire-wrap systems, either software or software plus controller plus machine, to others. This card was either for internal use or was sold as part of a package to those who bought Gardner-Denver machines with Burroughs controllers or support software. In any case, the big B burroughs logo is prominently displayed!

Carnegie Institute of Technology

This Job card from the mid 1960's contains a striking rendition of the classic Carnegie Tech seal, rendered in a somewhat faded halftone in the space reserved for comments. The great modernization hit at about the same time that Carnegie Tech became Carnegie-Mellon University, so as Tech became Mellon, the new generation of cards bore modernized artwork.

This IPL V card matches the above job card. These cards were both used with the Bendix G 20 system that was, through the mid 1960's, the workhorse computer in the Carnegie Tech computing center. A high resolution scan is available.

A Dubna Nuclear Research Instutite Calendar

This card from the latter years of the Soviet Union is imprinted with the logo of the nuclear research institute at Dubna, a suburb of Moscow. The logo is based on the building housing one of the institute's particle accelerators, surrounded by the stylized electron orbits of the Bohr atom, a common symbol for atomic research. The calendar printed on this card makes it clear that the card was distributed as a souvenier; distributing souvenier punched cards was a common way of advertising that an institute was on the cutting edge of high technology; this remained true even when cards had become nearly obsolete because of the strong association in the public mind between cards, computers and modernity.

Iowa State University Computation Center

Most institutions were content to print either their name or their logo on a card, but some cards featured both. Iowa State is famous as the home of the Atasanoff-Berry Computer, the first vacuum-tube digital calculator. It is strange that they were willing to sacrifice the numbering of the 9's row on the card, yet were unwilling to clear the clutter from their institutional seal. A high resolution scan is available.

Kitt Peak National Observatory

Most institutions were content to print either their name or their logo on a card, but some cards featured both. Kitt Peak chose to clear most of the card to ensure that their tastefully assymetrical artwork would not be obscured. A high resolution scan is available.

University of Maryland Computer Science Center

Most cards with institutional logos on them are based on symmetrical designs, with the logo centered on the card. A few institutions such as Maryland opted to make a statement with an assymetrical design. In this example, Maryland has also boldly gone where few others have gone before, putting the colored stripe across the bottom of the card and adding a second stripe to highlight the institutional name! A high resolution scan is available.

McMaster University

McMaster's off-center design incorporates a subtle feature in that the artwork leaves columns 1 to 72 uncluttered; this conforms to the FORTRAN convention that columns 73-80 are not used in program decks, so the logo artwork does not distract from the interpretation of FORTRAN code. A high resolution scan is available.

MIT Information Processing Center

This card is one of the uglyest to bear an institutional logo! Perhaps it was printed as a stopgap measure while awaiting the completion of the redesign of MIT's university seal, an effort that was part of the great modernization of american corporate logos in the late 1960's.

Princeton University Computer Center

This general purpose card tastefully displays the University name and heraldic emblem.