Premiered: Cambridge, Mass., 1950 Czech-born composer Bohuslav Martinů was commissioned to write his D Minor Piano Trio for the dedication of the Charles Hayden Memorial Library at MIT. He composed the piece in New York, where he resided for twelve years after the Nazi invasion forced him to flee Paris in 1941. The Hayden Library dedication took place on May 19, 1950, a Friday afternoon. During the festivities, the trio received its world premiere in a performance by MIT professors Klaus Liepmann (violin) and Gregory Tucker (piano), with George Finckel of Bennington College on cello. Tea was then served in […]

Published: Chapel Hill, 1949 No other consideration – and certainly no other commodity – has as much influence on American foreign policy as oil. In the second decade of the 21st century, the United States is completely dependent on a vast and steady supply of petroleum products in order for it to function in any familiar way. On the political front, voices from all sides lament the nation’s lack of alternatives to “foreign oil.” Breaking free of our dependency on a finite substance that comes largely from a volatile part of the world is a goal most Americans profess to […]

Published: Cambridge, Mass., 1948 The words cyborg, cyberspace, and cyberpunk are commonly used in contemporary English, and describe concepts that did not exist when MIT was founded. The terms all stem from the work of one of MIT’s legendary professors, Norbert Wiener (1894-1964). Wiener’s landmark publication, Cybernetics, described a new theory of control, feedback and communication in biological and electromechanical systems.  From his introduction: We have decided to call the entire field of control and communication theory, whether in the machine or in the animal, by the name Cybernetics, which we form from the Greek [word for] steersman … we […]

Published: New York, 1947 John J. Rowlands has entitled his introductory chapter “Portage to Contentment.” And that, no doubt, is what he wanted his readers to experience when they curled up with this memoir. Set deep in the woods of Ontario, with a narrative structure that moves from month to month, the author takes us through a calendar year spent on Cache Lake. Rowlands treats his readers to history and lore, reflections and reminiscences. “With most things in life,” he writes, “I do not believe in looking backwards, but a hindsight when you are working through new country is sometimes […]

Published: Cambridge, Mass., 1946 “In the applications of technological process to intellectual expansion, there lies a natural field of leadership for MIT. Accordingly, the Hayden Library will provide a laboratory in which these and other processes can be explored.” – The Charles Hayden Memorial Library, p. 13. These words were written with a sober but lofty confidence that epitomizes MIT at the dawn of the post-war era. Published in 1946, four years before the cornerstone of the Charles Hayden Memorial Library was laid, this oversized and amply illustrated brochure outlines MIT’s ambitious plans for its central library, which continues to […]

Published: Washington, 1945 The Second World War is sometimes called the “physicists’ war.” For most people, this term brings to mind J. Robert Oppenheimer’s team of Los Alamos scientists and the astonishing atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Less widely understood is the importance of radar to the Allies’ victory, and the crucial contributions of the scientists of the MIT Radiation Laboratory. As some Rad Lab researchers liked to say, the atom bomb ended the war, but it was radar that won it. Radar, short for “RAdio Detection And Ranging,” uses radio waves to identify and measure the location of […]

Published: New York, 1944 Powered flight stands as one of humanity’s greatest technological triumphs: the achievement of a dream that had haunted the sleep, but eluded the grasp, of millions of our forebears from time immemorial. For some, however, once the technology was perfected, it simply represented a new marketing opportunity. In 1944, Shell Oil Company published a promotional volume advocating an airport in every community. Visionary in its concept, and a bit utopian in its vision, Shell suggested that carefree motorists, in cars fueled by Shell, would drive to the neighborhood airstrip and board their own private planes. “In […]

Published: Chicago, 1943 Like our entry for 1942, the title of our 1943 entry begins with the word “victory.” But this is victory of a different and more easily-achievable sort.  Instead of triumphing through the use of air power and military might, James H. Burdett’s Victory Garden Manual encourages readers to “be patriotic and plant a Victory Garden!” In 1920, Burdett had founded the non-profit National Garden Bureau. He was working as an advertising manager for a seed company when he introduced the idea of a central communications office to represent the seed and garden industry. The NGB still exists […]

Published: New York, 1942 This book is blatant propaganda, but the market was no  doubt ripe for such literature just after the United States entered World War II.  Indeed, Victory Through Air Power was the #1 New York Times bestseller for a month straight and would even go on to become an animated Disney film. Make no mistake, this book was designed to shape public opinion. In an attempt at due diligence, the publishers issue an alert: Warning to laymen: in reading this remarkable book about the air, keep your feet on the ground! Only with such a cautionary word […]