Gates Gives $15 Million to Computer History Museum

The Computer History Museum, the world's largest institution dedicated to preserving and presenting the artifacts and stories of the Information Age, announced today that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — the charitable foundation of Bill Gates, founder, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, and his wife, Melinda — has pledged a $15 million gift to the Computer History Museum Campaign.

Including this new gift, the Silicon Valley-based museum has currently raised over $73 million toward its $125 million goal to create a full range of educational programs and exhibits and to establish a long-term endowment.

The Gates Foundation gift is the museum's largest to date and will be applied to expanding its endowment, accelerating its current operations through a matching grant to generate greater community support, and creating a "Timeline of Computing History," an interactive exhibit that will trace more than 800 years of the computing revolution and its impact on the human experience. In recognition of the Gates Foundation gift, the "Timeline of Computing History" gallery will be designated in Gates' honor.

"The impact on our society of the computing revolution is simply breathtaking — it has changed the way we work, play, learn, and communicate. It's our responsibility to collect the artifacts and stories today that will explain this incredible change to future generations. I believe that the Computer History Museum is uniquely positioned to do this, and Melinda and I are pleased to join other industry leaders to offer our support," Gates said.

via art daily

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