John Vincent Atanasoff has been called the father of the computer and his machine, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, is known as the first electronic digital computer. This paper will examine these statements, not from the point of view of the usual computer scientist, but from that of the professional historian. What does it mean to be first? Is it important to be first? On what basis is the claim made? What other devices might be considered to share this honor? I will provide an historian?s view of these questions and illustrate them with examples from the early history of computing machines. I hope these examples will indicate that a professional historian looks at these questions differently than most.