Surplus Success Story: Mimms Museum of Technology and Art
Located in Roswell, the Mimms Museum of Technology and Art houses one of the most comprehensive collections of technology relics from the digital age.
With a Cray-1A supercomputer and similar models already in its collection, the museum was in search of a second-generation supercomputer, a 1985 Cray-2, created by electrical engineer Seymour Roger Cray, to complete the historical period of supercomputing.
Five-hundred miles away, the Virginia Air and Space Science Center (VASC) team learned the museum needed the rare computer, and they identified the DOAS Surplus Property Division as the answer to making the museum’s wish a reality. The VASC had stored a Cray-2 supercomputer from NASA for several years and no longer needed it for exhibits.
DOAS Surplus Property’s federal team worked with the museum and VASC to complete the necessary paperwork to have the supercomputer acquired by the museum through its Surplus Property Donation Program.
Executive Director of Mimms Museum, Rena Youngblood, shared the importance of telling the full story of supercomputing.
“Some people think that supercomputing is not something we do much more of anymore and that’s not quite right," she said. "One of the things we try to do here is to bring it home [with storytelling]. The first supercomputers were very different from the ones today and we didn’t want to lose that piece of our history. It’s another step in the evolution of what we have today in supercomputing."
The Cray-2 is on exhibit at the museum in a section called Supercomputing: Vanquishing the Impossible. It takes visitors through the story of the modern computer age.
“Movies with special effects, such as Jurassic Park and Marvel films, would never be achieved without supercomputing, so we’re trying to bring that message, especially to young people," Youngblood said. "This is just part of that larger story and it’s nice to have the Cray-2 so they can physically see some of the change that’s occurring.”
Surplus Property Division’s Harris Sullivan of the federal team said everything went smoothly with getting the museum’s application processed and finalizing the acquisition. The most challenging part for the museum was getting the Cray-2 to Roswell due to its size.
“Luckily it all worked out,” Sullivan said. “It’s very cool to play a role in getting one of NASA’s first supercomputers here to a nonprofit in Georgia."
The original value of the supercomputer is $32 million.
“Obtaining the Cray-2 is a huge impact to the preservation and telling the story of supercomputing,” Youngblood said. “We needed this next piece to move down the timeline of supercomputers. As we go further [with technology], we’re losing a lot of people who worked on these first computers and it’s just important that we keep them. No one should keep every single mobile phone they have or every single computer that they’ve used – that would make us all kind of hoarders, but someone needs to keep them because we need to be able to look back to see what we’ve used, where we’ve come from and where we’re going."
Youngblood expressed gratitude for the customer service shown by the Surplus Property federal team.
“All I can say with certainty is if this were my Google review of the Surplus Property program, it’s a five out of five stars," she said. "You guys did a fantastic job helping us through the process and we now have something that’s going to be preserved for a really long time and help tell stories that need to be remembered.”
Editors' Note: September 24, 2025
An earlier version of this article listed the museum's name as the Computer Museum of America. The museum name is now Mimms Museum of Technology and Art. This version has been updated to reflect the new name.