Special Projects

Special Project

Curated by History Prof. Hiromu Nagahara: MIT Libraries Digital Exhibit “From Samurai into Engineers: Eiichirō Honma and MIT’s First Japanese Students” is live!

From Samurai into Engineers marks the 150th anniversary of the graduation of MIT’s first Japanese student, Eiichirō Honma (SB 1874), and highlights the experiences of Honma and other Japanese students at MIT who followed in his footsteps. It demonstrates how these students—and by extension MIT—contributed to Japan’s dramatic transformation into an industrial power at the turn of the nineteenth century and, in turn, how these students also began transforming MIT into a global institution within the first decades of its inception.

UROP

Project on the History of the Petroleum Refining Industry

Seeking two to three MIT Course 10/chemical engineering (or the functional equivalent) majors to conduct research on the history of the petroleum refining industry, emphasizing the following three topics: the rise of the petrochemical industry during and after WWII, the role of the University of Tulsa as a center for the study of petroleum refining, and the history of Universal Oil Products.

Special Project

Twelve Faces of Armenian Feminism

The project, based on research conducted by Ekmekçioğlu and Dr. Melissa Bilal (Visiting Scholar at MIT 2017–18), highlights 12 pioneering Armenian women writers and activists who produced work from the 1860s to 1960s.

Read More at MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology

Special Project

Beaver Press Print Shop

The Beaver Press Print Shop features a Gutenberg-facsimile wooden letterpress designed by former MIT Hobby Shop Director and alumnus Ken Stone '72, and built by MIT students in the Spring 2016 term.

MIT and Slavery

Students in the “MIT and Slavery” course are documenting how slavery contributed to the career of William Barton Rogers (the founder of MIT), how it influenced the establishment and early success of the Institute, and how it shaped science and engineering in the Civil War era

Comédie-Française Registers Project

The Comédie-Française Registers Project centers around the intersection of modern technologies and the humanities, and the historical archives related to the French theatrical heritage tradition.

Special Project

Chinese Students in the Chinese Exclusion Era

This project studies the legal and political barriers faced by students from China during the Chinese Exclusion Era (1882-1943). The project was initiated in 2016 in preparation for the MIT exhibit, "China Comes to Tech"

Special Project

South Asian Oral History Project

Professor Sana Aiyar, Associate Professor of History and MIT students dig deep into the longstanding connection between the Institute and South Asia.

Special Projects

French Playing Cards, 1650-1850

The history of French playing cards and political regimes from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries