The year was 1967. The Vietnam War had entered its twelfth year, Elvis got married, the classic Boeing 737 made its inaugural flight, and the world's first ATM was installed. Somewhere in Oakland, California, there was a huge data center belonging to Bell Labs. Lawrence "Larry" Luckham was the operations administrator there, and he decided to bring a camera to document a whole day inside the company...

Luckham indicated that most of the staff in the data center were women, with the exception of the programmers, who were all men. Only one of them was there on the day of his impromptu photo session, and as we can see in the images, he didn't hesitate to find a moment to have fun or relax. Luckham also highlighted the fabulous sense of humor of all the employees... and let's not even talk about the aesthetics. Between Larry's sideburns and the ladies' abundant hairstyles, each of the photos screams "1967".

People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
"Roxanne," Larry's secretary. Let's say I fell a little in love. (?)
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
"Roxanne," Larry's secretary. Let's say I fell a little in love. (?)
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Larry's sideburns.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Larry's style was striking.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
"Bea," at her desk. Some employees had a talent for art. Larry brought the materials, and the first decorations soon appeared.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
One of the operators. Larry admits that some names slipped his mind...
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
"Yvonne," another operator, playing hide and seek.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
The IBM mainframe had 1 MB of RAM, 648 megabytes of storage, and a seven-figure price.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
The programmer in the middle of a prank.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
A programmer playing the guitar.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Two of the operators on the team.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
"Helen," the librarian in charge of the tapes.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
The tapes had to be meticulously cleaned.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Another look at the tape storage, with Bea.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
The test room for data terminals. All prototypes.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Bea didn't work with hardware, but in Larry's words, she was an extraordinary supervisor.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Yvonne studying data.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Operations supervisor. Larry doesn't remember her name...
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
The backup storage was a 9-track magnetic tape.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Good photo of the operators.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
More art in the data center.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Not bad!
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
"Karen," at the data control unit. If something was wrong, she found it.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Another of the controllers.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
A moment of pause...
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Honeywell DDP-516, the system that connected the prototype terminals to the mainframe. Think of a hub or switch... a giant one.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Another image of the test room.
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Bell Labs' "Demonstration Center"
People Working at Bell Labs in 1967 (Gallery)
Of course, there was a prototype in the center.