MIT Museum

MIT Museum, founded in 1971, is the museum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It hosts collections of holography, artificial intelligence, robotics, maritime history, and the history of MIT. Its holography collection of 1800 pieces is the largest in the world, though not all of it is exhibited. Currently, works of Harold Edgerton and Arthur Ganson are the two largest displays ongoing for a long time. Occasionally, there are various special exhibitions, often on the intersections of art and technology.

Since 2005 the official mission of the MIT Museum has been, "to engage the wider community with MIT’s science, technology and other areas of scholarship in ways that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century."

For a number of years, the Museum used to house the "Hall of Hacks" showcasing some of the famous MIT hacks, but the section was closed in 2001. This was done to free up gallery space for other exhibits; the artifacts and documentation have been retained for future historical research and exhibition. A few selected larger relics of past hacks are now on semi-permanent display inside the MIT Stata Center, including a "fire hose" drinking fountain, and full-size replicas of a cow and a police car which had been placed atop the Great Dome (but not at the same time).

In January 2011, the Museum reopened its upper galleries after an extensive renovation. The first exhibit in the renovated space was "The MIT 150 Exhibition" in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of MIT's founding charter on April 10, 1861. The special exhibit consisted of 150 objects, documents, and other artifacts showing the history of people, places, and ideas related to MIT. A website was set up in tandem, including supplemental information and an online timeline. Video interviews specially created for the exhibition were available for viewing.

A photo exhibit of Berenice Abbott's work, on display through 2012, highlighting the science visualization projects which capture elementary Physics principles, for science education> including the picture, Bouncing ball in diminishing arcs.