May 25, 2010 | It’s nothing fancy—a typed, spiral-bound report from the late 1950s with a simple blue cover. But the 300-page document, nicknamed the NCAR Blue Book, carries nearly mythical status when it comes to the organization’s history. In 1956, the National Academy of Sciences appointed a panel of eminent scientists (including Jule Charney, Carl-Gustaf Rossby, Edward Teller, and John von Neumann) to “consider and recommend means by which to increase our understanding and control of the atmosphere.”

May 25, 2010 | It’s a Boulder landmark, sitting upon its mesa with the dramatic Flatirons in the background. But what many people don’t know is that the Mesa Lab could have turned out very differently. Preliminary plans drawn up for NCAR (then being called the National Institute for Atmospheric Research) in the late 1950s featured a building quite unlike the Mesa Lab in design. It did, notably, call for “space for an electronic computer.”

The first production model of the CRAY-1 supercomputer was delivered to NCAR in 1977 in two refrigerated electronic vans. More than 30 construction workers, engineers, and helpers were needed to move the five-ton machine into the computer room.

May 25, 2010 | Many things have changed at UCAR/NCAR over the decades, technology being one of the most obvious areas of transformation. But change is also evident in the more mundane records of everyday life—such as a cafeteria menu. These days, staff are more likely to find pad thai or tilapia vera cruz in the cafeteria than broiled liver and baked beans.