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 April through June 2023. Some materials are accessible today, while others are being processed and cataloged and will be available soon.

Available now

• Additions to the Richard Held papers
• Samuel Glaser photographs and print materials 
• Rare Books:
  • Shaykh Abu Ishaq (Esḥāq) Ahmad bin Hallaj At’ama / Bosḥāq At’ema. Kanz Al-Eštehā / Kanz Al-Eshteha / The Treasure of Appetite. [S. l., today’s Iran:]: Kerbela’i Mahmud – A-Mohammad Sadeq Khansari, Publishers: Mohammad Taqi, Printer. 1299 [1881]. 
  • Mahmud Celâleddin. Miftâhü’l-Esrâr. Bekay-i Ruh, Celb-i Ervah or Miftah Al-Asarlar / A Key to the Secrets. Surviving Souls – Calling of the Dead. Istanbul: Matbaa-i Hilye ‘Ayşe’ni Şirketi, 1326 [1910].
  • Ragıb Rıfkı Özgürel, trans. Kahve Telvesiyle Keşf-i İstikbâl / Fortunetelling with Coffee Grounds. Istanbul: Şems Matbaası 1338 [1922].
  • Şemseddin Ahmed (1468–1536, nom de plume Ibn Kemal or Kemalpaşazâde). Kitāb Rujūʻ Al-Shaykh Ilá Ṣibāhu Fī Al-Qūwah ʻalá Al-Bāh / The Book of the Sheikh’s Return to His Youth in Power of the Bah [i. e. Sexual Energy] …. Mecca: Matbaatü’l-Amiriyye,  1300 [1883]. 
  • Seyyid Mehmed İzzet / Çaycı İzzet Efendi. Çay Risalesi / A Treatise on Tea. Istanbul: İzzet Efendi Matbaası 1295 [1878].

Coming soon

• Khazi-Syed, Afeefah et al. Our Ancestors Did Not Breathe This Air. Rockville, MD: Beltway Editions, 2022. (volume of poetry written by 6 MIT alumnae)
• MIT Office of the President, L. Rafael Reif records
• Additions to the George W. Clark papers
• Additions to the Technology and Culture Seminar records
• Additions to the Center for Advanced Visual Studies records
• Additions to the Thomas Kuhn papers
• Additions to the Morris Cohen papers
• Additions to Collection on Student Life
  • 1920/21 Ram Prasad student materials

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.