Paul Allen's SOL-20

From Paul Allen’s collection to Seattle

Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975. Decades later, he assembled one of the most important private collections of computing history and opened Living Computers: Museum + Labs in Seattle so that many of its machines could be seen running.

This SOL-20 was part of Allen’s collection and was displayed at Living Computers. After the museum’s closure, the collection was offered through Christie’s, and the machine entered the ATX Computer Museum collection.

Amir Husain purchased this machine on behalf of the Museum’s collection in Christie’s Firsts: The History of Computing — Paul G. Allen Collection sale, which closed on September 12, 2024. The lot record identifies serial no. 214557 and includes the SOL-20, two external disk drives, a Panasonic monitor, and an archival box of manuals.

The photograph records the machine in its former museum setting. The museum’s own object photographs and the auction lot record document its present history.