ARCHIVES EXPERTISE AIDS BUILDING 20 OCCUPANTS
by
Jeffrey Mifflin and Nancy Heywood
This article was written during the project that it describes,
which was carried out in 1997-1998. Since then the Stata
Center was begun on the Building 20 site.
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Pedestrians
compete for space with a microwave dish on a cart in Building 20's busy
corridor during Rad Lab days. Photograph courtesy of the MIT Museum.
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"The building was constructed in...1943 as a war building and is of a temporary nature," reads an architect's memo regarding MIT's Building 20, "...the life of said building to be for the duration of the war and six months thereafter." World War II is long over, but the rambling wood-frame structure south of Vassar Street, originally thrown together as a temporary home for war-related radar research, has served MIT well in the intervening 52 years. The radar systems perfected there are widely considered to be the technological advance most responsible for the allied victory in World War II. (It is said that the atomic bomb ended the war, but that radar won it.) The adaptable facilities in Building 20 have since become home to many diverse offices and individuals.
The Upcoming Move and the Archives ProjectA recent $10 million gift has now become the catalyst for MIT to realize a long-held plan to replace Building 20 and bring together the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the Laboratory for Computer Science, department of Linguistics and Philosophy, the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and other departments into a modern $95 million facility. In response to the decision to raze Building 20 in early 1998, Provost Joel Moses has found funds to implement a proposal by the Libraries Institute Archives and Special Collections to hire two Project Archivists, Jeffrey Mifflin and Nancy Heywood, who started surveying and appraising records in the building last summer under the direction of Helen Samuels, former Institute Archivist. The project is continuing under the supervision of Margaret de Popolo. For the Archives the impending relocation of offices and individuals, spread out over the ensuing year, represents an opportunity to work closely with departments, faculty members, and Physical Plant to ensure the responsible treatment of records needed for legal or fiscal purposes, and records of enduring historical significance.
Outreach and AssistanceThe Project Archivists are currently working with departments and individuals to analyze records and make recommendations about (1) the preparation of records offices need to maintain and move to their new location, (2) the transfer to the Archives of non-current records of long-term value, and (3) the destruction of records no longer needed by specific offices or the Institute. After an introductory meeting and an overview of departmental records, the archivists complete a survey of files. Departmental files typically include: administrative records (financial, personnel, Institute and outside correspondence); academic files (curriculum planning, course materials, copies of theses); and research materials (grant proposals and research reports). The archivists produce a report summarizing the findings of the survey and proposing specific recommendations for each category of files. Archivists then meet with offices to reach final decisions about the files, provide guidance on implementing decisions, and assist with the transfer of records to the Archives.
The Archives is always interested in providing ongoing services to help faculty members manage and preserve their records. During the Building 20 Records Project, in recognition of the fact that each faculty member's situation is different, the archivists are taking flexible approaches tailored to individual needs, offering advice about organizing actively-used records, or assisting with the identification of files that are no longer needed and could be transferred to the Archives. Among the personal and professional faculty materials collected and preserved by the Archives are: teaching files (problem sets, syllabi, lecture notes, exams); research records (lab notebooks, field notes, drafts, grant proposals, correspondence with colleagues); and consulting materials. Files transferred to the Archives remain accessible to their creator, and may be used by others in accordance with the policies of the Archives.
Photo Documentation EffortOne worthwhile addition to the Building 20 Records Project is a photographic documentation project designed to capture images of Building 20 before it is torn down. Physical Plant has agreed to pay a photographer to take photos illustrating the structure itself and how the last occupants of the building use the available space, working from a list of views specified by the Project Archivists.
Colorful History of Building 20 
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Rooftop
activities were an important aspect of World War II radar research at
Rad Lab's Building 20 and also at Building 22 (upper right corner).
Photograph courtesy of the MIT Museum.
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For many employees staffing the 40 or so departments and programs still housed in Building 20, its scheduled demolition will be a sad, but long-expected, transition to more modern, but less homey quarters. Building 20 has been the scene of many interesting developments and incidents. When the Rad Lab dissolved at the end of the Second World War, many of its researchers remained to form the core of the new Research Laboratory of Electronics, which moved into the Rad Lab space. RLE and Rad Lab together represent a landmark in the development of government-funded scientific research. RLE was also MIT's first interdisciplinary lab.
The modern study of linguistics had its origin in Building 20 in the work of Noam Chomsky, Morris Halle, and others in the 1950s. The LINAC, or linear accelerator, housed in Wing D was the largest in the world at the time of its installation in 1947. Harold Edgerton devised his underwater cameras and side-scan sonar there, and the list of serious accomplishments goes on. No account of Building 20, however, is complete without reference to some of the many curious stories associated with the building. Amar Bose, for example, is said to have spent several years of surreptitious midnight testing in the building's anechoic chamber, resulting in the Bose Speaker Co. Psychedelic murals still seen on the walls in Wing C are the outgrowth of a painting contest to settle an argument between MIT's Jerry Lettvin and renegade Harvard professor Timothy Leary regarding the effects of LSD as a stimulus to the artistic impulse.
A bogus press release issued by an MIT hacker once announced that following a devastating earthquake, "Institute authorities were stunned to find all the buildings collapsed, except Building 20...All of the new buildings will be modelled after Building 20's construction techniques." Nevertheless, the building is now definitely scheduled to come down. The Building 20 Records Project, continuing through spring 1998, is an instructive example of how an archives in cooperation with a university's administration and physical plant department can work together to solve pressing problems and accomplish mutual goals.
How to Ask for Advice and AssistanceThe MIT Libraries Institute Archives and Special Collections is always available to work with MIT departments, offices, and faculty members to review files, offer advice, and preserve the record of their important accomplishments. Someone from the Archives would be pleased to speak with you at 617-253-5690.
This article first appeared in MIT Libraries News, Volume 9, Number 1 (Spring, 1997)
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