Ada Lovelace

Born
December 10, 1815
Died
November 27, 1852
An ornate Victorian comic portraying Ada Lovelace with plans for the Analytical Engine, writing at a mechanical calculator, and discussing its creative potential with Charles Babbage.

Fact-check note: Lovelace’s 1843 notes include an algorithm for Bernoulli numbers intended for Babbage’s unbuilt Analytical Engine and famously imagine machines manipulating symbols and composing music. Calling it the “first algorithm” is too broad; “the first published computer program” is the more defensible formulation, though historians debate priority and attribution. Dialogue in the panels is dramatized. Science Museum Group · NIST