MIT’s global initiatives and worldwide influence are well documented. To delve deeper into MIT’s historic contributions around the world, look no further than the Archives.

MIT established the Institute Archives and Special Collections to capture and preserve the Institute’s rich history in order to demonstrate “MIT’s impact on the world.” Our collections document a wide range of contributions such as: early engineering efforts including mining in South America and the building of Panama Canal; the Cold War détente
with the Soviet Union; the establishment of institutes of technology in India in the 1950s; and the “Cosmopolitan Club” of international students at MIT in the early 20th Century.

Additionally, our rare book collections comprise books written and published all over the world. Five hundred-plus years of knowledge are represented; from the 15th Century Nuremburg Chronicle to the 20th Century theories of Einstein in the Annalen der Physik.

These collections attract researchers from all over the world. In the past year alone, visitors to the Institute Archives and Special Collections travelled from Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, France, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Japan, Mexico and the U.K. And with increased online access to our holdings, we are glad to share an increasing amount of MIT’s unique collections and history with researchers worldwide.