Roswell’s Mimms Museum Showcases Iconic Tech: Game Boys to AirPods
The Mimms Museum of Technology and Art occupies space in the former Roswell Mall. The public museum opened in 2019. It focuses on the history of personal computing and related artifacts.
Apple retrospective opens April 1
On April 1, after a members-only preview, the museum launched a major Apple exhibition. The show is titled iNspire: Fifty Years of Innovation from Apple. It presents roughly 2,000 artifacts, making it the largest public display of Apple products to date.
What the exhibition contains
The collection includes early Apple desktops and rare prototypes. Memorabilia from employees and fans is on display as well. Items range from early personal computers to popular consumer devices.
- A Lisa desktop, first sold in 1983 and later largely discarded into a Utah landfill.
- The original iPod introduced in 2001.
- A clamshell iBook laptop released in 1999, offered in candy-color hues.
- Handheld gaming consoles and other classic devices.
The museum highlights iconic tech and spans decades of design. Visitors will note devices commonly described as Game Boys to AirPods in popular summaries of tech history.
Origins and major acquisitions
Lonnie Mimms founded the museum. He runs Mimms Enterprises, the commercial real-estate firm that owned Roswell Mall. When North Point Mall siphoned shoppers and economic shifts closed Roswell Mall, Mimms converted part of the building into a museum.
Building the archive
Mimms began collecting with a Sol-20 personal computer from Processor Technology, produced in 1976. His archive covers about 40 years of design and engineering. In 2024, Mimms added the collection from Living Computers: Museum + Lab.
Living Computers was launched in Seattle in 2012 by Paul Allen. It closed in 2020 during the pandemic. Mimms acquired the materials with the goal of preserving and displaying them together.
Technical treasures and visitor experience
The museum houses one of the world’s largest Cray supercomputer collections. It also displays an early Enigma machine and NASA mission equipment. These items have proven popular with school groups and history enthusiasts.
Guests can play restored arcade and console games. Pac-Man and Sonic the Hedgehog are among the playable titles. For older visitors, the games offer a chance to revisit familiar pastimes.
Filmogaz.com covered the opening and exhibition details. The Mimms Museum aims to chart the arc of computing from its earliest machines to devices that shaped daily life.
