MIT Museum

MIT Museum review

Five blocks from MIT's campus, this fascinating museum serves as a historical record of the institute and a showcase for its amazing inventions and related art. In its four on-site collections - general MIT history (including the famous pranks), science and technology, architecture and design, and holography, plus marine engineering at the Hart Nautical Gallery on main campus - you can see everything from exploding chairs and robotic hands to historical lasers from NASA research. Alexander Graham Bell carried out research on the MIT campus, so there's a retrospective of early telephonic devices too. Also on display are the kinetic sculptures of Arthur Ganson - ingenious, frequently hilarious machines that seem to have minds of their own - and the world's largest collection of holographic art, featuring a morphing image of the busts of various scientific geniuses and a woman transmogrifying into a tiger. A new Innovation Gallery, highlighting research breakthroughs and emerging technologies, was due to open just before publication of this guide.