magnifier
Image
magbottom
 
Programmers Betty Jennings and Frances Bilas (right) arranging the program settings on the ENIAC's main control panel, Moore School of Engineering, Philadelphia, PA, 1946.
Close Window

Two women operating the ENIAC's main control panel while the machine was still located at the Moore School. Left: Betty Jennings (Mrs. Bryant) Right: Frances Bilas (Mrs. Spence)

Credit: Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army, from the archives of the ARL Technical Library.

Two of ENIAC's six original women programmers were Frances Bilas (1922 -) and Betty Jean Jennings (1924-) A mathematics major at Chestnut Hill College, Bilas was hired to compute ballistics trajectories. Joining the ENIAC team in 1945 from Army Ordnance at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Jennings went on to work on the BINAC and UNIVAC I computers. In 1997 both women were inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, along with the other original ENIAC programmers

Back to Top