Pamela McCorduck Collection

McCorduck, Pamela (1940- ) Collection (1972-1979 [1974-1975])
Carnegie Mellon University Archives, Special Collecting Interests

Extent
3 boxes (Boxes 1-3); 3 linear feet

Records History
Pamela McCorduck conducted a series of oral history interviews with researchers involved in artificial intelligence (AI) during 1974 and 1975. The project was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The interviews resulted in McCorduck's book Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence (San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1979). The collection includes interviews with Carnegie Mellon researchers Allen Newell and Herbert Simon. In total, McCorduck conducted interviews with thirty-six scientists: Paul Armer, Alex Bernstein, W.W. Bledsoe, Ted Brain, Bruce Buchanan, Max Clowes, L. Stephen Coles, Hubert Dreyfus, Edward Feigenbaum, Julian Feldman, Edward Fredkin, Herbert Gelernter, I.J. Good, Leon Harmon, John McCarthy, Donald MacKay, Donald Mitchie, Marvin Minsky, Joel Moses, Allen Newell, Nils Nilsson, Seymour Papert, Bertram Raphael, Raj Reddy, Nathaniel Rochester, Charles Rosen, Arthur Samuel, Oliver Selfridge, Claude Shannon, J.C. Shaw, Herbert A. Simon, James Slagle, Ray Solomonoff, Fred Tonge, Joseph Weizenbaum, and Lofti Zadeh. The interviews look at each scientist's involvement in artificial intelligence. The book traces the evolution of artificial intelligence from its history and beginning to its current state (as of 1979) and its future.

McCorduck holds a degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and a MFA from Columbia University. She was working in the English Department at the University of Pittsburgh while working on the oral history project. McCorduck has written numerous books and articles, many of which look at the intellectual impact of computing, especially artificial intelligence.

Scope and Content Note
The Pamela McCorduck Collection is housed in three archival boxes and are arranged in three series. The series designated are Project Materials; Transcripts, Research and Related Materials; and Audio Cassettes- Oral History Interviews. The collection includes correspondence, interview transcripts, articles and other published and unpublished documents, and audio tape cassettes.

The collection is made up primarily of interview transcripts and related research materials in the form of articles provided to McCorduck by the interviewee. The remaining bulk of the collection is the audio cassettes of the actual interviews. The remaining material relates to the artificial intelligence oral history project as a whole.

Please note that the transcripts and any related materials for the Allen Newell interviews are part of the Allen Newell Collection, a collection of digitized material from the Newell Collection. Access to the Allen Newell Collection is through http://diva.library.cmu.edu/Newell/. The interview transcripts (5) and related material can be found by searching under the term "Pamela McCorduck project." The transcripts are not available in the Pamela McCorduck Collection.

Extensive preservation photocopying was completed for the McCorduck Collection.

Series I: Project Materials
The materials in Series I: Project Materials relate to the artificial intelligence oral history project as a whole. Specifically the materials has been divided into eight sub-series: Correspondence; Books to look into; Grant proposal drafts; National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Grant Proposal; Project progress reports; Expense vouchers- travel; Expense vouchers- transcribing; and Working manuscript.

Series II: Transcripts, Research, Related Materials
Series II composes the bulk of the collection. The arrangement follows the original order instituted by McCorduck. Each sub-series is the name of interviewee or a topic/author of related materials. The sub-series are arranged alphabetically. Each folder contains all of the material related to the interviewee, so a folder may include a transcript, correspondence, and written work by the interviewee or provided to McCorduck by the interviewee.

The topically/author labeled sub-series are usually articles and written work used as research for portions of the book, Machines Who Think.

In cases where there are two or more folders for one interviewee, the interview transcripts will be in Folder 1 and any related materials will be in Folder 2 or greater.

Series III: Oral History Audio Cassettes
Series III contains the oral history audio cassettes of the oral history interviews conducted by McCorduck and related recordings. The cassettes are arranged by date of the interviews. The date method was chosen because there were often interviews with two different scientists on one tape, so an alphabetical arrangement was not feasible. The tapes were originally numbered, but the numbering system was not consistent; some numbers were used twice, and some were skipped, making this method of arrangement also not feasible. The date method was the most practical method of arrangement for the oral history interview tapes. The few tapes that were not dated were either placed at the end of the dated series or placed after a dated interview with the same scientist.

All of the oral history audio cassettes are located in Box 3 of the Collection. Within Box 3, the tapes are in 3 smaller boxes, labeled 3A, 3B, and 3C. The earlier dates are in 3A, with the final tapes in 3C.

There are sixty-six audio cassettes. Sixty-four of the cassettes are ninety minute tapes. The remaining two cassettes are sixty minute tapes. Not all of the cassettes are recorded on both sides. This determination is based on the presence of writing on both sides of the cassette labels; it is therefore only an estimate. The length of the tape is recorded in parentheses after the tape contents on the container list; if the tape is believed to be recorded on only one side, this is noted after the length of the tape.

Provenance
This collection of transcripts, audio cassettes and related materials was donated to the Carnegie Mellon University Archives by Pamela McCorduck in September 1978.

Restrictions
The interviews, transcripts and audio cassettes, that are available without restrictions are: Hubert L. Dreyfus, Allen Newell, Seymour Papert, Herbert Simon, and Joseph Weizenbaum.

All other interviews, transcripts and audio cassettes, are available for research only. Publication of these interviews are restricted by current copyright law.

Use of the audio tapes is restricted pending preservation decisions.

Separations
All of the audio cassettes are located in Box 3 of 3 of the Pamela McCorduck Collection.

Processor
The Pamela McCorduck Collection was processed by Hillary Bober in April 2002.

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Container List: Pamela McCorduck Collection

Bx1
I. Project Materials

II. Transcripts, Research, Related Materials

Bx2

Bx 3
III. Audio Cassettes- Oral History Interviews