Ada Lovelace - Blog Posts
“That brain of mine is something more than merely mortal as time will show.” - Ada Lovelace
Illustration by Moebius
Ada Lovelace (December 10, 1815-November 27, 1852)
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was a writer and mathematician who worked on Charles Babbage's early mechanical computer. Her work in what she called "poetical science" led her to a legacy as the first computer programmer, and continues to inspire generations of hackers today.
Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″. From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.
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We create, we dream and we transform. We change the world with science, art, politics, fashion, sports, and fighting. And we will continue to be everything we want to be✊🏻✨
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Are you looking at the world’s first computer programmer?
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852), born Augusta Ada Byron and now commonly known as Ada Lovelace, was an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognised as the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine; thanks to this, she is sometimes considered the world’s first computer programmer.
If the last name Byron sounds familiar, here’s why,
Ada was the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron (with Anne Isabella Milbanke, 11th Baroness Wentworth). [Text & Image Source: Wikipedia]
If you didn’t know, now you know.
Ada Lovelace
10 December 1815 - 27 November 1852
14/03/2025, friday 14 march 2025, 11:36 p.m, indore, madhya pradesh, india.
Watercolour portrait of Ada King, Countess of Lovelace also known as Ada Lovelace, ca. 1840, possibly by Alfred Edward Chalon.
Ada Lovelace, is celebrated as the first computer programmer. In the early 19th century, she wrote detailed notes on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a pioneering mechanical computer.
Among these notes was an algorithm designed to compute Bernoulli numbers, which is recognized as the first published computer program. At a time when computing was an uncharted territory, Lovelace envisioned the potential of machines to perform complex tasks beyond basic arithmetic.
Her foresight and contributions laid the groundwork for modern computer science.
She was also the daughter of the poet Lord Byron.
Since 2009, Ada Lovelace Day has aimed “to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths by encouraging people around the world to talk about the women whose work they admire.” The day’s namesake, Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), was the daughter of Lord Byron and Anne Isabella Milbanke. Ada, in possession of a keen intellect and deep passion for machinery, was educated in mathematics at the insistence of her mother. Later in life, Ada studied the workings of the Analytical Engine developed by mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage. In her notes on the engine, Ada described an algorithm for computing numbers – an algorithm which would distinguish Ada as one of the world’s “first computer programmers.”
In honor of Ada Lovelace Day, we present some images from the CHF Archives of women working in various chemistry labs. Click on each photo for additional information.
And for more women in science content, consider taking a look at the films in The Catalyst Series: Women in Chemistry by the Chemical Heritage Foundation.
Lovelace’s friend Charles Babbage designed a concept for a machine he called the “Analytical Engine” – essentially a mechanical computer that would have relied on punch cards to run programs. He recruited Lovelace to translate some notes from one of his lectures, but while Lovelace was translating she added to the notes herself.
The notes grew to three times their original length, as Lovelace described what many call the first computer program. Because of funding issues, the machine was not built during her and Babbage’s lifetimes.
But Lovelace’s published article on the Analytical Engine later became a source of inspiration for Alan Turing’s work to build the first modern computers in the 1940s.
Women are sometimes considered outsiders in the science and technology fields, but Lovelace and many of the female computer programmers who followed her are proof that this paucity is a function of society, not capability. We forget or never learn about the female “computers” who programmed early mechanical machines in World War II, or that the women’s magazine Cosmopolitan once ran articles suggesting that women were perfectly suited for programming.
If the lack of acknowledgement of women’s contributions to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields grinds your gears, then Ada Lovelace should be one of the first names you go to right that wrong.
Further reading:
Wikipedia profile
10 Things You May Not Know About Ada Lovelace
What if there were more women in tech?
Why we ALL need to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day