Friday, May 11, 2007

Michael Dell never imagined his work would end up in a museum when he was sitting in his college dorm room in 1984, dreaming of building and selling his own personal computers. Now, one of his original computers is going to the
Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

The 42-year-old chairman and chief executive of Texas-based Dell Inc. donated a collection of materials Wednesday to the Smithsonian, including his employee badge, one of the company's newest computers and a PC Limited computer from 1985.

The objects will join an Altair computer, a first-generation IBM PC and an original Apple Macintosh in the museum's collection.

One piece of the Dell collection came from a couple in Ashe County, N.C. They recently traded their 1985-era PC Limited, Dell's original brand, for a new computer from Dell when they realized it could be a historic artifact.