The MIT Libraries Department of Distinctive Collections collects, preserves, and makes available the Libraries’ unique and rare materials. Our collections range across disciplines, time periods, and formats and include faculty research and personal archives, Institute records, student and community life materials, Institute publications, the Aga Khan Documentation Center, and rare book collections on various topics of science, technology, engineering, architecture, and the humanities — just to name a few.  

Here are new acquisitions brought into the collections from June through December 2024. Some materials are accessible today, while others are being processed and cataloged and will be available soon.

Available now

• Additions to the Douglas T. Ross papers 
• Additions to the Francis Otto Schmitt papers
• Jerome Friedman papers
• Whitehead Institute records
• Additions to the Judith Wechsler personal archives
• Additions to the Nancy Hopkins personal archives
• September and June theses
• Written Revolution (zine)
• Erica Dodd Archive on Islamic Art
• Photo Album documenting a journey to the Holy Land (Heiliglandfahrt) (German, 1928).
• Maryatt, Kitty, et al. La Prose Du Transsibérien Re-Creation. Two Hands Press, 2018. (Artists’ book)

Coming soon

• Woodie Flowers personal archives
• Additions to the Rosalind H. Williams papers
• Martin Tang Oral History
• Additions to MIT Museum records 
• Additions to the Dirk Jan Struik papers
• Addition to Faculty Meeting records
• Additions to the Philip Morrison papers
• Additions to the SHASS records (Gender Equity Committee)
• Additions to the Graduate Student Council records
• Additions to the Corporation Risk and Audit Committee records
• Additions to the Harvard-MIT HST program records
• Class of 1938 reunion book
• Additions to the MIT Libraries records
• Additions to the MIT Corporation records
• Lawrence B. Anderson personal archives
• Andrew Kazdin recordings and ephemera
• Various student guidebooks from the office of student life
• The Thistle (student publication)
• Martha Peterson Archive on Stucco Stained Glass Windows in Egypt, Syria, and Turkey
• Samuel R. Peterson Visual Archive on Architecture in Iran
• Late Monuments 6 (Dima Srouji, 2024). 
• Andō, Tadao. Ando’s Hands : Tadao Ando Works 1976-2020. CCC Āto Rabo Kabushiki Kaisha, 2021. (Artists’ book)
• Otero-Pailos, Jorge. Treaties on De-Fences. [Otero-Pailos Studio], 2023.
• Dictionnaire Arabe-Français : Dialectes de Syrie [6 Fascicules]. Published by Paris, Geuthner, 1935.
• Chinnici, Michael, and publisher Red Octopus Press. Vanishing Cuba : curated photo storytelling collection. Reserve edition., Red Octopus Publishing, 2021.
• Wortzel, Adrianne, et al. See No Evil. Small Editions, 2021.

To see any of these collections or items (even the items coming soon), follow the instructions on our website or fill out our contact form with any questions. Please note that some records may be closed for a set time frame due to Institute access restrictions or donor restrictions.