Dutch Computer Museums
A personal account of visiting three distinct computer museums in the Netherlands, ranging from interactive living-room style exhibits to massive warehouse collections. The author reflects on the preservation of computing history and the joy of interacting with vintage hardware.
Why it matters
Preserving technological history is vital for understanding the rapid evolution of modern society and digital culture.
This is an archive of a Twitter thread from 2022. I have since deleted my Twitter account.
I visited three different Dutch computer museums last week, and they were so great I wanted to tell you about them a bit more.
1. The first was HomeComputerMuseum in Helmond, which was sort of a “living room museum” – over 500 computers, mostly from the 1980s onwards, many of them running and available to play or interact with.
(I talked to one of the employees and they said they could power up even more of them! But they found mixed success having computers running that people had no relationships or prior experience with.)
2. The second one was Bonami SpelComputer Museum in Zwolle. This was more of a “warehouse museum,” but what a warehouse!
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