Hewlett-Packard committed to philantrophy early in its history. The first page of this ledger noted a $5 donation as “Misc. – Contribution” in June 1940 — the year after HP was founded. That ethos wou ...

Bill and Dave tried their hands at multiple projects while they were searching for their young company’s market niche. Among the devices they pursued were an automatic toilet flusher, an electric weig ...

The 205A, seen here being tested by Dave Packard, was higher power than the company’s original 200A oscillator. With the demand for radio equipment soon to come from World War II, it was perhaps Hewle ...

Building on the success of Hewlett-Packard’s oscillator line, the 320AR distortion analyzer offered a simple and convenient instrument for studying and measuring the harmonic distortion in audio frequ ...

Harvey Zieber began working as an assistant to Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in the Addison Avenue garage, making him Hewlett-Packard’s first employee. He was also the only Hewlett-Packard employee be ...

By 1940, Hewlett-Packard had gotten large enough to hire a full-time administrative assistant named Helen Perry. Perry, seen here with Dave Packard, was Hewlett-Packard’s first female employee. (Befor ...

Bill Hewlett’s fascination with radio and AV equipment led to Hewlett-Packard’s first product and its early focus on instruments. Here Bill continued this fascination with an audio signal generator. ...

Bill and Dave were great believers in responsible corporate citizenship. Their company’s first recorded donation came in just its second year of operation, $5 recorded as “Misc. – Contribution.” It wa ...

The use of open spaces with employees able to see and communicate with each other while having their own workstations came early in the company’s manufacturing history, and remained thereafter.