The first time data was stored on a card was in the distant 1725 when punch cards were used to automate a drawloom, which weave fabric and tapestries. In a way those cards stored images, though not quite how it's done today. Then in 1884 punch cards were used again in the Hollerith Electric Tabulating System (think electro-mechanical Excel). Hollerith would later start a company that would become the foundation of IBM. Hollerith punch card • Olivetti Programma 101 • Magnetic cards for instruction storage The Olivetti Programma 101 (1965) is considered by some to be the first...
Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/counterclockwise_short_history_of_the_memory_card-news-34263.php
