MIT Libraries News

MIT’s founder, William Barton Rogers, was born 202 years ago on December 7. It is appropriate, then, that the Institute Archives and Special Collections, in its December Object of the Month exhibit, announces a grant from the Fred J. Brotherton Charitible Foundation to perform conservation work on one hundred documents from the Rogers papers, one of MIT’s most important historical collections. The grant includes funds to convert the guide to the Rogers papers to EAD (Encoded Archival Description), an encoding standard for electronic archival finding aids, to make information about the collection available on the World Wide Web.

The Institute Archives & Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability online of transcripts of oral histories with Walter A. Rosenblith and William R. Dickson.

Walter Rosenblith (1913-2002), Provost, Professor of Communications Biophysics, then Institute Professor, had a tremendous impact in the scientific realm and in the policies and academic structure of MIT. During much the same period, Bill Dickson (1935-2006) oversaw the dramatic growth of the Institute’s campus. We feel that these two oral histories make an interesting juxtaposition

You will use a GPS (global positioning system) and your puzzle solving skills to work your way through the 12 clues and discover a hidden box of treasure. Each clue will help you discover places of information at MIT, while leading you virtually closer to MIT and surely closer to the treasure box. GPS units can be borrowed by the MIT community from Rotch Library (7-238). http://libraries.mit.edu/gis/geocache.html

The subject of the September Object of the Month exhibit by the Institute Archives and Special Collections is the Physical Science Study Committee, a group of university physics professors and high school physics teachers, led by MIT’s Jerrold Zacharias and Francis Friedman, who created new curricula for the teaching of introductory courses in physics.

Further information about the Physical Science Study Committee can be found in the Physical Science Study Committee Oral History Collection (MC 602), the Jerrold Zacharias Papers (MC 31), the Educational Services Incorporated Records (MC 79), the Physical Science Study Committee Records (MC 626), and other sources in the Institute Archives and Special Collections, 14N-118.

The Institute Archives and Special Collections August Object of the Month is President Theodore Roosevelt’s letter appointing John Ripley Freeman (MIT 1876) one of six “engineers of high standing” to inspect and report on construction of the Panama Canal.

The Archives houses a rich collection of Freeman’s papers, including many photographs of the Panama Canal project. Among his many undertakings was a detailed presentation of designs for MIT’s Cambridge campus, “Study No. 7.”

Also in the Archives’ collections are the papers of Allen Hazen, another of the engineers appointed by President Roosevelt. Hazen, who attended MIT in 1888, was the subject of an earlier exhibit.

Pictured here: the six engineers. Freeman and Hazen, 1st row, 1st & 2nd from left

The Institute Archives and Special Collections has launched An MIT Chronology, a timeline detailing some of the major developments of the Institute’s first 145 years. A work in progress, the Chronology is ultimately intended to provide an extensive outline of the history of the Institute from its birth to the present, with authenticity provided by The Source for each entry–a citation to the relevant archival collection.

A live webcast of Commencement on Friday, June 9, will be broadcast beginning at 8:20 a.m. Tom Rosko, Head of the Institute Archives & Special Collections, will share the microphone with Dean of Admissions Marilee Jones to bring the festivities to life on your computer screen and add some historical context.

In observance of the anniversary of the granting of MIT’s charter on April 10, 1861, the Institute Archives and Special Collections has chosen to focus this month’s Object of the Month exhibit on MIT’s Centennial celebration. Some of the many letters and telegrams received by the Institute on the occasion of its 100th birthday are displayed on a poster opposite 14N-118 and on the Archives’ web site. The warmth and enthusiasm of the greetings celebrate the success of William Barton Rogers’s plan for a new kind of institution and illustrate MIT’s influence on the international scientific and educational communities.

In the fall of 1960 MIT mounted an exhibition of forty works by Andrew Wyeth in the Hayden Gallery. March’s Object of the Month exhibit by the Institute Archives and Special Collections displays a letter from Wyeth to MIT’s first lady, Catherine Stratton, setting forth his reasons for declining an invitation to an opening cocktail party. The letter is from the Catherine Nelson Stratton Papers, which include her “Social Book,” records of entertainment at the President’s House while Julius Stratton was president of MIT.

Learn more about the Archives’ collections and MIT’s history by browsing previous exhibits.

Tuesday, January 17, Archivist Ewa Basinska and Physics Librarian Jennifer Harter present an IAP session, Seeking Yesterday’s Science: Resources in the History of Physics. The time is 2:00 – 3:00 pm; the place, 14N-132.

Come celebrate the tercentenary of Ben Franklin, a statesman, writer, and a scientist, born in Boston, on January 17, 1706. Look through an early edition of Franklin’s Experiments and Observations on Electricity and other archival materials as you learn about resources in the history of physics. We are offering an introduction to the sources in the history of physics from ancient times through present. Together, we will look at the wide range of resources, from manuscript collections to electronic databases. Our perspective is historical rather than scientific, so no math background is required. Contact: Ewa Basinska, 14N-118, x8-5533, basinska@mit.edu

Ji-Hye Ham, a second-year student in Architecture, has created an exhibit in Lobby 10 in fulfillment of an assignment to reveal or draw attention to something overlooked in a public space. Using photographs and information from the Institute Archives and Special Collections, she has created a moving display focusing on the war memorials engraved on the Lobby 10 walls. There are more pictures of the exhibit on the Archives’ web site.