Drawings cabinet once owned by Charles Babbage, 19th century.

Open drawings cabinet owned by British computing pioneer Charles Babbage. These three wooden cabinets were made to store his design drawings, with the drawings hanging vertically from the tabs. When the cabinet is open the extension arms can be fitted from which a drawing could be hung for display. Babbage (1792-1871) was also a reformer, mathematician, philosopher, inventor and political economist. His Analytical Engine of 1834 was the first calculating engine designed along modern lines, and it is for this that Babbage is considered to be the 'father' of computing.