Window with a Peacock Design, late 18th–early 19th century, Ottoman Egypt. Rotch/Lamb Art Collection, Department of Distinctive Collections.
Refracted Histories: 19th-Century Islamic Windows as a Prism into MIT’s Past, Present, and Future
In MIT’s Distinctive Collections, many architectural elements from the earliest days of the Institute’s architecture program still survive as part of the Rotch Art Collection. Among the artworks that conservators salvaged was a set of striking windows of gypsum and stained-glass, dating to the late 18th- to 19th-century Ottoman Empire. Refracted Histories illuminates the life of these historic windows, tracing their refracted histories from Egypt to MIT, their ongoing conservation, and the cutting-edge research they still prompt. The exhibit is on view in the Maihaugen Gallery (14N-130) through July 17.
Katharine Dexter McCormick and MIT
An exhibit in the Hayden Library Loft celebrates the 150th birthday of McCormick (SB 1904), one of the first women to earn a biology degree from MIT and a noted suffragist, philanthropist, and champion of women’s reproductive rights. Student notebooks and correspondence explore her time at the Institute, how her studies impacted her life after graduation, and her legacy today.
