History of Technology

Samurai in Japan, then engineers at MIT
MIT News - History
Samurai in Japan, then engineers at MIT In 1867, five Japanese students took a long sea voyage to Massachusetts for some advanced schooling. The group included a 13-year-old named Eiichirō Honma, who was from one of the samurai families that ruled Japan. Honma expected to become a samurai ...
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HIV and AIDS Archives: a workshop and a symposium
HIV and AIDS Archives: a workshop and a symposium – The National Archives
HIV and AIDS Archives: a workshop and a symposium The National Archives holds an extensive collection of material related to the HIV and AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. This includes cabinet papers and records documenting the government response, public health campaigns, and scientific research connected to the spread and ...
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The Detached Papers: New records on the transatlantic slave trade on Discovery
HIV and AIDS Archives: a workshop and a symposium – The National Archives
The Detached Papers: New records on the transatlantic slave trade on Discovery Content note: This blog highlights documents that contain racist language and descriptions of the conditions faced by enslaved Africans. Original language is preserved here to accurately represent our records and to help us fully understand the past.
Over the last few months, ...
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Admir Masic: Using lessons from the past to build a better future
MIT News - History
Admir Masic: Using lessons from the past to build a better future As a teenager living in a small village in what was then Yugoslavia, Admir Masic witnessed the collapse of his home country and the outbreak of the Bosnian war. When his childhood home was destroyed by a tank, his family ...
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The National Archives Welcomes New Board Members
News Archives - The National Archives
The National Archives Welcomes New Board Members  
The National Archives welcomes the appointment of two new non-executive Board members, Lopa Patel MBE and Nigel Baker. They replace Baroness Ros Scott of Needham Market and Mark Richards who both step down on 30 December 2024 after highly ...
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Researching the 1934 Gresford Colliery disaster 
HIV and AIDS Archives: a workshop and a symposium – The National Archives
Researching the 1934 Gresford Colliery disaster  If you’ve watched the TV series Welcome to Wrexham you will know that it follows the fortunes of Wrexham AFC and the local community. If you made it past the disappointment of the football club failing to get promoted at ...
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Seeking our future in the deep past
MIT News - History
Seeking our future in the deep past Used to be, societies would recycle building materials. In Rome, St. Peter’s Basilica was made from the stones of the Colosseum. The Inca reused stones from one project to the next. Today we rarely do that.As MIT associate professor of ...
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Walking through archived colonial histories, part 3: Tasmania to Perth
HIV and AIDS Archives: a workshop and a symposium – The National Archives
Walking through archived colonial histories, part 3: Tasmania to Perth I’ve been journeying through The National Archives inspired by historian Corinne Fowler’s latest talk with us, about her work ‘Walking through countryside’s forgotten colonial histories’. Collections experts Philippa Hellawell, Elizabeth Haines and Chris Day have joined me to re-enact one ...
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Walking through archived colonial histories, part 2: Tolpuddle to Tasmania
HIV and AIDS Archives: a workshop and a symposium – The National Archives
Walking through archived colonial histories, part 2: Tolpuddle to Tasmania Inspired by our recent event with historian Corinne Fowler about her work ‘Walking through countryside’s forgotten colonial histories’, I invited collections experts Philippa Hellawell, Elizabeth Haines and Chris Day to join me to re-enact one of Fowler’s walks – in ...
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Walking through archived colonial histories, part 1: Charborough to Barbados
HIV and AIDS Archives: a workshop and a symposium – The National Archives
Walking through archived colonial histories, part 1: Charborough to Barbados Methodologies is an exciting new event series by the The National Archives. It brings together researchers, practitioners, and creatives who generate new knowledge through the interrogation and disruption of archives.
In our event on 24 September we were joined by historian ...
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Multisensory archive, part 2: Using our senses to access and engage with collections
HIV and AIDS Archives: a workshop and a symposium – The National Archives
Multisensory archive, part 2: Using our senses to access and engage with collections In a recent project at The National Archives, I’ve been exploring how the senses can be used to access, engage with, and understand the materiality of archival collections.
Having explored the sensory characteristics of archival documents in part one of ...
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Royal Flying Corps and Successors: World War One Gallantry Award Medal Index Cards Released
News Archives - The National Archives
Royal Flying Corps and Successors: World War One Gallantry Award Medal Index Cards Released The National Archives, in partnership with Forces War Records, the leading military family history website from Ancestry®, has launched a digital collection of Royal Flying Corps and successors: World War One Gallantry Award Medal Index Cards. 
The collection contains almost 12,000 ...
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Translating MIT research into real-world results
MIT News - History
Translating MIT research into real-world results Inventive solutions to some of the world’s most critical problems are being discovered in labs, classrooms, and centers across MIT every day. Many of these solutions move from the lab to the commercial world with the help of over 85 ...
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New initiative to improve access to Holocaust-related collections
News Archives - The National Archives
New initiative to improve access to Holocaust-related collections We have become a founding member of EHRI-UK – the national body representing Holocaust-related collections in the United Kingdom. The other founding members are the Wiener Holocaust Library, the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London and the ...
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Risk, culture, and control
MIT News - History
Risk, culture, and control Some people think the world is wildly unpredictable, and are glad insurance can handle the risk and uncertainty they face. Other people believe their destiny is written in the stars, and consult a daily horoscope to reveal what is in ...
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School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences welcomes nine new faculty
MIT News - History
School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences welcomes nine new faculty Dean Agustín Rayo and the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences recently welcomed nine new professors to the MIT community. They arrive with diverse backgrounds and vast knowledge in their areas of research.Sonya Atalay joins the Anthropology Section as ...
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Q&A: “As long as you have a future, you can still change it”
MIT News - History
Q&A: “As long as you have a future, you can still change it” Tristan Brown is the S.C. Fang Chinese Language and Culture Career Development Professor at MIT. He specializes in law, science, environment and religion of late imperial China, a period running from the 16th through early 20th centuries.In this Q&A, Brown ...
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Investigating the past to see technology’s future
MIT News - History
Investigating the past to see technology’s future The MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) recently organized and hosted a two-day symposium, The History of Technology: Past, Present, and Future.The symposium was held June 7-8 at MIT’s Wong Auditorium, and featured scholars from a variety of ...
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The unexpected origins of a modern finance tool
MIT News - History
The unexpected origins of a modern finance tool In the early 1600s, the officials running Durham Cathedral, in England, had serious financial problems. Soaring prices had raised expenses. Most cathedral income came from renting land to tenant farmers, who had long leases so officials could not easily raise ...
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Q&A: The power of tiny gardens and their role in addressing climate change
MIT News - History
Q&A: The power of tiny gardens and their role in addressing climate change To address the climate crisis, one must understand environmental history. MIT Professor Kate Brown’s research has typically focused on environmental catastrophes. More recently, Brown has been exploring a more hopeful topic: tiny gardens.Brown is the Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor ...
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