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Kai Alexis Smith, Architecture & Planning Librarian, kaias@mit.edu
Matt Saba, Program Head, AKDC, mdsaba@mit.edu
Rebecca Bramlett, Instruction & Outreach Archivist, Distinctive Collections, bramlett@mit.edu
Rami Alafandi, Collections Curator, AKDC, alafandi@mit.edu
Amanda Hawk, Public Services Manager, Distinctive Collections, ahawk@mit.edu
Donated Summer 2023
Ram Prasad earned his Doctorate in Chemistry from MIT in 1931, becoming the first South Asian graduate student in the School of Sciences. Prasad’s diary entries about MIT start on October 13th and continue till February 5th, 1920, two years before his graduation. Prasad chronicled how his first days at the Institute started with finding housing in Cambridge and convincing his professors he was fit to pursue a Doctoral degree in Chemistry. After two days of demonstrating his intellect and readiness for the degree, Prasad was given permission to continue with the Doctoral program he had come to MIT for. Ram Prasad published his Doctoral thesis work on August 21st, 1922, nearly three years after he had first arrived at MIT. Maintaining his resolve to return to India and contribute to his nation, Prasad eventually moved to Mumbai and served as the Chief Engineer for the Koyna Hydroelectric Power Plant, the first underground hydropower facility in India.
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Explore the South Asia and the Institute online exhibit for more information about Ram Prasad.
Meejin Yoon
2003
Absence is a sculptural art object in the form of a book created by former MIT Architecture Faculty Member J. Meejin Yoon, which serves as a memorial to the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Yoon created this non-architectural, non site-specific space of remembrance - a portable personal memorial in the form of book - instead of producing a traditional design proposal for the World Trade Center Memorial Competition. This 2-pound book has a considerable physical presence and features die-cut shapes throughout, leaving the impression of each of the World Trade Center’s floors. Quiet, respectful, and restrained, this book speaks without words of absolute loss and mourning.
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Ellen Knudson
2013
“American Breeding Standards explores the systemized rules about what comprises a good or bad horse, a good or bad woman — and the steps one might take to achieve the breed standard.” -Crooked Letter Press
Images and text printed from photo-polymer plates and handset metal types.
The binding structure is an exposed spine sewn on Cave Paper tapes and attached to paste paper covered boards.
Text excerpted from American Horses and Horse Breeding (John Dimon, 1895) and Canine Breeding Standards of the German Shepherd (American Kennel Club, 2012). Other texts and illustrations by the artist.
The cover of the book has a hinged pop-up that folds out. The interior of the book contains 3 foldout pages.
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Sarah Bryant & David Allen
2015
Data visualization as an artist's book. This book is a collaborative project between artist Sarah Bryant and David Allen, Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology at Middlebury College. They used estimates prepared by the US Census Bureau to create population pyramids for every region, then paired them up to create abstract human forms. They write: “Although we carefully graphed all of the available information, it was initially collected using a variety of different methods. The data is a combination of accurate reporting, biased self-description, out-of-date or incomplete reports, and best-guess projections by Census Bureau demographers. It is a flawed narrative drawn from our combined and often conflicting desires to give a truthful and exact account and to tell a story about ourselves.”
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Julie Chen
2008
Panorama explores the issue of climate change from Chen’s artistic perspective, simultaneously expressing hope and helplessness in the face of this growing crisis. Opening to a full width of 5 feet, This book engulfs the reader/viewer in an experience both moving and surprising with large format pop-ups and interactive folded sections that interlace personal thought with aspects of a more universal reality.
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Anne Covell
2017
“The history of libraries is one of loss. Libraries like ours are susceptible to different fault lines: earthquakes, legal regimes, institutional failure.”
– Brewster Kahle, Founder & Digital Librarian at Internet Archive
On January 20th, 2017, Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. That same day, the official White House website (whitehouse.gov) began the digital transition to archive and replace Obama’s policies with those of the new administration. People began to notice that key issues like health care, education, and immigration were nowhere to be found. Keyword searches for terms such as “climate change,” “LGBT,” and “civil rights” all returned 404 errors. Even the Spanish-language version and the disabled-accessible version of the site were no longer available.
Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library that archives webpages, captured 167 snapshots of whitehouse.gov. This book records the last snapshots taken of Obama’s policies before they came down, the 404 errors that followed, as well as the Internet Archive timestamps for when the information was last available and when it disappeared.
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2024, Variable Edition of 60.
Fauna Fables celebrates the enchanting world of animals through a tapestry of fables and folklore. From majestic lions to graceful birds, these books invite readers to a journey through the fauna-inspired sections. 3 x 3 x 1 inches., hand-carved camel bone covers, laser-cut handmade paper, linen thread, and Coptic binding.
The Tapestry Folios Series celebrates the exquisite craftsmanship of Coptic tapestries, renowned for their vibrant colors and intricate designs. Traditionally, these textiles were adorned with motifs, showcasing mythological creatures, human figures, animals, botanical elements, and geometric patterns. Additionally, Christian symbols such as saints, scenes from the Old and New Testaments, crosses, and oriental symbols were commonly depicted. Each book in this series focuses on a unique selection of motifs, inviting readers to explore the beauty of Coptic tapestry art. The handmade paper features diverse colored folios, with each section laser-cut to replicate the intricate patterns, appearance, and texture found in traditional Coptic tapestries. The covers are hand-carved from camel bone with spaces and cuts that reveal the enchanting patterns within the books.
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Haji Noor Deen
2011
Ink and watercolor on paper
Haji Noor Deen Mi Guang Jiang is a renowned master of Arabic calligraphy, specializing in the Sini style which originated from the Chinese Muslim tradition. Born in 1963 in Shangdong province, China, he blends Chinese and Arabic calligraphic traditions, often compared as the two of the world's finest manifestations of the written word.
Haji Noor Deen
2007
Ink and watercolor on paper
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Michelle Chung
2024
Chung compiled an encyclopedic resource for those looking to understand adaptive clothing, specially designed for individuals with disabilities. This book categorizes today’s adaptive fashion into four main accommodation types: sensory, access, mobility, and fit.
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Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nablus – Album and Large Printouts
This well-preserved 1928 album documents a Heiliglandfahrt (Holy Land journey) undertaken by a German travel group, likely from Stuttgart, between April 9–29, 1928. The album (36 x 25 cm) features 109 vintage photographs showcasing famous landmarks, rare street scenes, and snapshots of daily life in cities and the countryside. Accompanying the album is a folder with 17 large vintage printouts (28 x 38.5 cm), mounted on thick cardboard (48 x 63.5 cm), some of which were likely produced for exhibition purposes. These prints include both duplicates from the album and additional images from the region.
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Michael Faraday
1900
An early 20th-century facsimile of the journal by English physicist and chemist Michael Faraday (1791-1867). Commonplace books are personal collections of literary quotations compiled by an individual reader. A commonplace book might also include notes and comments from the compiler. Ready-made books with headings under which to enter commonplaces first appeared in the 18th century, and by the 19th century, many educators encouraged the practice of commonplace books as a habit promoting reflection.
The two volumes in Distinctive Collections cover the years 1813-1826.
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Birkeland, Kr. (Kristian)
1901
Norwegian physicist Kristian Birkeland was the first person to accurately describe how charged particles from the Sun interact with Earth’s magnetism to create the aurora borealis. During Birkeland’s lifetime, scientific institutions like England’s Royal Society did not support his theories on the cause of the aurora. It would not be confirmed until 1967, when a US space probe recorded observations of Birkeland’s solar winds and electromagnetic interactions.
Published in French, the data contained in this volume comes from Birkeland’s first of three expeditions in the Arctic Circle to map auroras and snowstorms.
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Birkeland, Kr. (Kristian).
1908
Norwegian physicist Kristian Birkeland was the first person to accurately describe how charged particles from the Sun interact with Earth’s magnetism to create the aurora borealis. During Birkeland’s lifetime, scientific institutions like England’s Royal Society did not support his theories on the cause of the aurora. It would not be confirmed until 1967, when a US space probe recorded observations of Birkeland’s solar winds and electromagnetic interactions.
Published in English, the data contained in this volume comes from Birkeland’s second of three expeditions to the Arctic circle to map auroras.
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Kircher, Athanasius, and Hermann Scheus.
1646
This is the first edition of Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae ("The Great Art of Light and Shadow") written by German polymath and Jesuit priest, Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680). The book covers a number of subjects relating to light– from the first published description in Europe of the illumination and projection of images, the first printed illustration of Saturn, and many descriptions of instruments such as sundials, moondials and mirrors that make use of light.
Kircher organized this work into 10 parts, symbolically representing the ten strings of the instrument with which the psalmist praises the Lord in Psalm 143 of the Bible.
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Franklin, Benjamin
1774
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) began his experiments on electricity in the 1740s and shared the results of his experiments via letter to correspondents in Great Britain. In 1751, these letters were compiled into the book, Experiments and Observations on Electricity: Made at Philadelphia. The letters describe Franklin's work on lighting strikes and lightning rods, and also discussed his positive and negative theory of electrical fluid.
Displayed here is the fifth edition of this work from 1774, bound together with two unrelated pamphlets, including A Method of Making Artificial Magnets by John Canton from 1751. In this copy, the section on “Electrical Experiments, With an Attempt to account for their Several Phenomena, Together with Some Observations on Thunder-Clouds” (pages 150 - 161) is particularly notable for the notes and numbers written in the margins by an early reader.
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Hevelius, Johannes.
1647
Hevelius’s Selenographia includes the first topographical maps of the moon. Hevelius (1611-1687), though a brewer and town councilor by profession, was an avid astronomer. Using the observatory and telescope he built on the roof of his home, he observed sunspots, discovered four comets, and compiled his findings into seven books on astronomy. The Selenographia also includes a volvelle, a spinning chart typically used to determine the position of a celestial body.
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A. Barthélemy
1935
Authored by A. Barthélemy, former French Consul and Professor Honoraire at the École des Langues Orientales, this Arabic-French dictionary focuses on the dialects of Syria, including Aleppo, Damascus, Lebanon, and Jerusalem. Published in Paris in 1935 by Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, the work was made possible through grants from the Haut-Commissariat de France in Syria and Lebanon. This publication highlights the linguistic richness of the region and serves as a key resource for understanding Levantine dialects of the time.
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