314 Main Street, Cambridge

The MIT Museum, not unlike the Smithsonian, began as “MIT’s attic,” a place for all of the artifacts, models, and documents the Institute had accumulated since its founding in 1861. It was long housed in a former radio factory on the northern edge of MIT’s campus, near Central Square. Today, in its new location in the center of Kendall Square, the museum functions as a gateway to MIT, turning the Institute “inside out” and making its work “more accessible and more visible,” in the words of longtime director John Durant.

Guest speaker

John Durant, Director of the MIT Museum from 2005 to 2023