Today, when something goes wrong with a computer, we have a go-to name for it.

A bug.

It's a figure of speech, obviously.

There isn't an actual bug living in your laptop wreaking havoc.

But back in the 1940s, at the dawn of the computing age, this situation could be a bit

more literal.

I'm Amanda McGowan and this is Atlas of Skira.

A celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

And today, we're heading to the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

We'll visit the world's first actual computer bug and learn about the trailblazing computer

scientists Grace Hopper, whose work still shapes the way we use computers and talk about

them even today.

That's after this.

On the National Mall, just a quick hop away from the Washington Monument, is the Smithsonian

Museum of American History.

And inside its archives, tucked in a storage case, is what appears at first glance to be

an unassuming little graph paper notebook.

But there's something surprising and maybe even a little gross inside of it.

The page that has a little, how shall we say this, most lightly, distressed, looking,

bug, moth, scotch tape to the page of the book.

This is Peggy Kidwell.

She's Curator of Mathematics and Acting Curator of Computers at the Smithsonian.

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