Homebrew Club Poster

The legendary Homebrew Computer Club held its first meeting on March 5, 1975 with 30 attendees who braved a rainstorm to see and discuss the first Altair 8800 personal computer to arrive in the Bay Area. After a months' break, it met every two weeks until Dec. 1986 as a forum open to all who wanted to make connections in the radical new field of personal computers. The meeting process, designed by Lee Felsenstein at the fourth meeting, allowed attendees to identify themselves and briefly explain what they had, needed, or wanted to talk about -- after which the last half was spent with people milling around having the discussions they now knew they wanted to have. Steve Wozniak was at all the early meetings designing his hardware and code. Thousands attended and participated over its 11-year run. For the final meeting Felsenstein had a T-shirt drawn up and sold them -- now you can have the cartoon for your wall or on a shirt.