History of LISP
Paul McJones, editor
paul@mcjones.org
http://www.mcjones.org/dustydecks/
Last modified 21 October 2025
Abstract
The goal of this project is to collect, preserve, and present source code, design documents, and other materials concerning the original LISP I/1.5 system, and as many of its follow-ons as possible. LISP was one of the earliest high-level programming
languages and introduced many ideas such as garbage collection, recursive functions, symbolic expressions, and dynamic type-checking; it is still in use. This is a project of the Computer History Museum's Software Preservation Group. The editor appreciates comments, suggestions, and donations of
additional materials.
Contents
Acknowledgements
This project is dedicated to Professor Doctor Herbert Stoyan, who dedicated much time to tracing the development of Lisp from its birth in John McCarthy's project at M.I.T. through its world-wide diaspora, and who very generously donated his Lisp archives to the Computer History Museum: the Herbert Stoyan Collection on LISP Programming, Lot Number X5687.2010. Stoyan's collection may be searched via the finding aid or the Museum's catalog.
Many other people contributed information, manuals, and software:
- Bob Abeles, Paul W. Abrahams, John R. Allen, Giuseppe Attardi, Jeff Barnett, Bruce G. Baumgart, Alan Bawden, David Betz,
Fred Blair, Dennis Boone, Robert Brayton, Daniel G. Bobrow, Lars Brinkhoff, Phil Budne, Alexander Burger, Howard I. Cannon, Mats Carlsson, George Carrette, Jérôme Chailloux, Steve Cherry, Masaomi Chiba, Rich Cornwell, Paul Cumberworth, Scott Cyphers, Timothy Daly, Ruth E. Davis, Josh Dersch, L. Peter Deutsch, Deborah Douglas, Daniel J. Edwards, John R. Ellis, Scott E. Fahlman, Edward Feigenbaum, Robert R. Fenichel, Edward Fredkin, Tayssir John Gabbour, Richard P. Gabriel, Richard Greenblatt, Adolfo Guzmán-Arenas, Anders Haraldsson, Jack Harper, Timothy P. Hart, Lowell Hawkinson, Zane H. Healy, Charles L. Hedrick, Steven O. Hobbs, Rainer Joswig, Paul Kimpel, Robert L. Kirby, Jon Kleiser, Tom Knight, Al Kossow, Alan Kotok, Michael I. Levin, John Lewis, David Librik, Paco Linux, Emílio C. Lopes, John D. Lowrance, Andru Luvisi, Kazimir Majorinc, Klim Maling, Jed Marti, Larry Masinter, J.P. Massar, Blake McBride, John McCarthy, James McDonald, Harold V. McIntosh, Jim Meehan, Jonathan K. Millen, The MIT Press, David A. Moon, Joel Moses, Daniel L. Murphy, Marvin L. Minsky, Beryl Nelson, Derek Newhall, Eric Norman, Gordon S. Novak, Jr., Asher Olsen, Julian Padget, Angelo Papenhoff, Chris Perdue, Joachim Pimiskern, Kent M. Pitman, Dave Pitts, Lynn H. Quam, Thomas C. Rindfleisch, SDF Public Access UNIX System (TWENEX.ORG), Stephen R. Russell, Peter R. Samson, Robert A. Saunders, Raymundo Segovia, Bernard Serpette, Carl Shapiro, Stanley T. Shebs, Tim Shoppa, Jeff Shrager, Olin Sibert, Guy L. Steele Jr., Bob Supnik, Tetsuro Tanaka, Warren Teitelman, Graham Toal, David Touretzky, Alberto Verjovsky, Björn Victor, Eiiti Wada, Mark Waterbury, Clark Weissman, Arun Welch, Michael Wessel, JonL White, Nigel Williams, and Robert Yates.