In response to the recent presidential election, MIT students and community members gathered in Lobby 7, where posters wrapped around the pillars there invited them to share their reactions. This week, these 12 posters were transferred to the Institute Archives and Special Collections, where they will be kept in the archives so that they can be viewed and preserved for anyone to access and learn from, now and in the future. They have been added to the Collection on Student Life at MIT (MC-0618), which offers a glimpse of the social backdrop students experience while at MIT.

The posters, which measure between 11.5 and 16 feet long and 3 to 4 feet high, are themed around four ideas:

• What do you want to know? (4 posters)
• Share your hopes (3 posters)
• Share your fears (3 posters)
• What should we do next? (2 posters)

Staff of the Institute Archives are in the process of taking close-up images of the posters that will be used to transcribe the handwritten text. Full images of the posters and transcribed text will be made available through an MIT Libraries website in the coming weeks.

Update: The website is now available – Visit the Election 2016 Reaction: Lobby 7 Posters site

Anyone interested in viewing the posters in person can do so in the Institute Archives and Special Collections reading room in building 14N-118. The reading room is open Monday through Thursday, 10am to 4pm. For more information, contact us at mithistory@mit.edu.