MIT Museum

Founded in 1971 as the MIT Historical Collections by Warren Seamans, the MIT Museum’s original mandate was the collection and preservation of historical artifacts then scattered throughout MIT. Renamed MIT Museum in 1980 by the MIT Corporation Executive Committee, it began to develop exhibits and educational programs based on the Museum’s MIT-focused collections and designed to meet the needs and interests of the MIT community as well as society at large.

Today, in fulfilling its mission, the Museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting materials that serve as a resource for the study and interpretation of the intellectual, educational, and social history of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and its role in the development of modern science and technology. Serving as window to MIT, the Museum stands alone among university museums in its focus on the research and teaching of the parent institution and its scientific and technological activities and achievements and their impact on society.

With over 15,000 square feel of exhibition space at its main galleries plus two on-campus galleries, the Museum displays ongoing and changing exhibitions. Throughout the year, it presents an array of public, school, and group programs plus teacher workshops on science and technology for participants of all ages. These programs often feature MIT professors, researchers, and students as well as Museum educational and curatorial staff.

The Museum houses five permanent collections—MIT General, Science and Technology, Architecture and Design, Hart Nautical, and Holography.

The MIT Museum is an administrative department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a coeducational, privately endowed research university that seeks to advance knowledge for the benefit of society and give students an active, practical education firmly rooted in real world problems. In accordance with its mission, the Institute supports thriving arts and humanities programs as well as its world-renowned research and teaching in the sciences, technology, and management, and carries out innovative and distinguished work at the meeting point of science, technology, and art.

The Museum is under the auspices of Associate Provost for the Arts, who also oversees the List Visual Arts Center, the Museum Loan Network, and the Office of the Arts. The Museum was accredited by the American Association of Museums in 1984 and reaccredited in 2002.

The MIT Museum belongs to the American Association of Museums, Association of Science and Technology Centers, New England Museum Association, International Confederation of Architectural Museums, and the International Council of Maritime Museums.