Peek Into the Past: 90 Years of Technical Communication
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?tp=&arnumber=887284&isnumber=19161
  access restricted (by the publisher) to members/subscribers/customers only
  peer-reviewed

Blicq, Ronald S.
IEEE PCS
2000

Abstract:

Take a look at your bookshelf: what is the copyright date of your earliest book on technical communication? I doubt whether you will find anything much earlier than 1965. I describe and comment briefly on several well-reputed technical writing books published between 1908 and 1965. Then I lead into the changes that have been occurring in the technical writing scene, and the impact these changes have had on us as professional technical communicators.