OBJECT RECORD / AIM-EQP-1958-001

Electronic Neural Network, Mark I Perceptron

An electronic assembly built at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory gave Rosenblatt’s perceptron a physical form.

MATERIAL RECORD

The object, not only the idea.

Object type
Neural Network
Collection
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Catalogue number
1987.0819.01
Record ID
nmah_334414
Place made
Buffalo, New York, United States
Institution status
Not on view · status checked

Physical measurements

Part 01199.4 × 194.3 × 64.1cm
Part 02200.6 × 146 × 64.7cm

CURATORIAL READING

Why it is here

The Smithsonian catalogue dates the Mark I Perceptron to 1958 and describes sensory, association, and response units distributed across cabinets, switches, a plugboard, potentiometers, and meters. The surviving equipment makes an abstract learning proposal inspectable as a manufactured system.

Evidence boundary

This is not a modern deep network or evidence that the machine fulfilled contemporary predictions about human-like intelligence. The Smithsonian record is still subject to revision, says the object is not currently on display, and applies separate reuse conditions to its images; no image is reproduced here.

02 / BUILD A LEARNER

Position in the guided path

From written rules to learned representations

A room-scale electronic assembly gives the perceptron a physical form.

Back to the object room →

PROVENANCE

Source trail