A ground-breaking exhibition charting the rise of Reading’s role in the UK’s ‘Silicon Valley’ is set to open in March 2025.
We are in the final stages of researching and presenting Reading’s DIGITAL Revolution, a major project celebrating the diamond jubilee of the computer company Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) opening its first UK office in Reading - a moment that would redefine the future of our town and region.
You can find out more about the project by viewing the Reading’s DIGITAL Revolution trailer film, produced with our project partners at the National Museum of Computing thanks to a generous grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
This short trailer film gives an update on our current Lottery funded project marking the 60th anniversary of Digital Equipment Corporation opening its first UK office in Reading.
A Brief History of DEC in Reading
We began to explore Reading's digital history with our community cabinet display entitled A Brief History of DEC in Reading, which ran from June-October 2024 on the Museum’s ground floor, Story of Reading gallery. To populate the display our team surveyed over 500 former DEC employees and customers, conducted one-to-one interviews, and started to assemble a collection of rare tech and personal objects to build a unique profile of Reading’s relationship with DEC - a company described as the Apple, Microsoft or Google of its day.
Featuring vintage tech from the 70s, 80s and 90s, this object-rich display described the birth of Reading’s internationally renowned technology industry with the remarkable story of DEC; a company that became perhaps Reading’s most influential commercial employer during the latter part of the 20th century.
Visitors to the new display discovered DEC’s PDP-8 machine, one of the world’s first popular computers. DEC’s important role in pioneering the technology behind the Internet was also featured, along with the part it played in everything from supersonic travel, nuclear research and banking, through to timekeeping at the early Reading half marathons! Visitors were able to access reflections on the growth of the computing industry in Reading going back to the 1960s and what it was like then for a young woman working in software consulting and programming.
And now - our team is creating a digital version of A Brief History of DEC in Reading, available to the public on Reading Museum's website from March 2025.
On display – DEC’s PDP-8 from the early 1970s was the first commercially successful minicomputer (Kindly lent by TNMoC)
Digital Britain: The Road from Reading
Our community display was timed to coincide with the National Museum of Computing’s DEC anniversary exhibition at nearby Bletchley Park.
Digital Britain: The Road from Reading takes a tour of the locations across the UK that - from humble origins in Reading – were to play such a vital part in establishing Britain as DEC’s most successful national operation; leading to it becoming the world’s second largest computer company, after IBM.
The exhibition highlights the achievements of DEC and the individuals involved, showcasing the lasting legacy of DEC UK's profound influence on British technology. There are plenty of opportunities to get hands on at the National Museum, using pioneering DEC computers to shake your understanding of what a computer looks like and how it can operate!
Digital Britain: The Road from Reading runs until 28 February 2025.
For more details of opening times and to plan your visit follow this link to the National Museum of Computing’s website www.tnmoc.org.uk
COMING SOON
Lifelong hands-on learning activity at the National Museum of Computing (Image: Courtesy of TNMoC)
Reading’s DIGITAL Revolution at Reading Museum, 2025
Powered by this work, our project will culminate with a major exhibition titled Reading’s DIGITAL Revolution opening in the Sir John Madejski Gallery on Tuesday 18th March 2025. This will explore not just the story of DEC but also encourage visitors to encounter the influence of the technology industry on our town’s past, present and future.
We are also hard at work with the National Museum of Computing and our other educational partners to prepare a lively program of fun tech events and complementary learning activities designed to be accessible to all.
And there’s more - in March we'll be launching a digital version of our 2024 community exhibition, A Brief History of DEC. And by December 2025, our team will re-boot this webpage to bring you virtual exhibitions, downloadable make & take learning activities, oral history interviews and further historical accounts that go deeper into the past, present - and future of Reading’s Digital Revolution.
About our Partners
The project has received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £87,000 and generous donations from DECUS and local charity RGSpaces. This is enabling Reading Museum and The National Museum of Computing to tell the DEC story through a series of exciting and authentic exhibitions, education programmes and outreach activities.
We are hugely grateful to DEXODUS (the association of former DEC employees in the UK). Their committee and membership have kindly supported this project from the start and continue to provide guidance in our quest to reveal more about the previously unchartered history of the computing industry in Reading.
We also look forward to developing the project further with help from Digit (All), Reading University's Institute of Education, New Directions College, Blended Past, South Central Institute of Technology, Reading College, and Berkshire Education Business Partnership
