History of Technology

A brief history of the global economy, through the lens of a single barge
MIT News - History
A brief history of the global economy, through the lens of a single barge In 1989, New York City opened a new jail. But not on dry land. The city leased a barge, then called the “Bibby Resolution,” which had been topped with five stories of containers made into housing, and anchored it in ...
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New Windows for First Floor
News Archives - The National Archives
New Windows for First Floor Work to replace the windows in the 1970s part of our building continues and from Monday 16 June will move to the first floor. Our existing aluminium double-glazed windows are now over 40 years old and it is time to ...
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Tiny organisms, huge implications for people
MIT News - History
Tiny organisms, huge implications for people Back in 1676, a Dutch cloth merchant with a keen interest in microscopes, Antony van Leeuwenhoek, discovered microbes and began cataloging them. Two hundred years later, a German doctor in current-day Poland, Robert Koch, identified the anthrax bacterium, a crucial ...
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Blogs at The National Archives have a new home
Blogs at The National Archives have a new home – The National Archives
Blogs at The National Archives have a new home Over 12 years ago, we launched this blog as a place where you can find out all the latest news and updates from The National Archives. In that time over 2,000 posts have been published by hundreds of our experts ...
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Human cost of working on the railways revealed in database
News Archives - The National Archives
Human cost of working on the railways revealed in database A new public database listing records about railway accidents is being launched at The National Archives on Thursday 5 June to coincide with Volunteers Week.
The Railway Work, Life & Death project makes accessible information about 4,500 railway staff killed or ...
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Katrina scoops LHVA award in Volunteers’ Week
News Archives - The National Archives
Katrina scoops LHVA award in Volunteers’ Week A volunteer at The National Archives has won a London Heritage Volunteer Award for her outstanding work.
Katrina Lidbetter won the Going the Extra Mile category in the annual awards managed by London Heritage Volunteering Group. She is one of a ...
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DCMS announces new members of public records advisory body
News Archives - The National Archives
DCMS announces new members of public records advisory body Seven new members have been appointed to the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives, the independent body which advises the government on access to public records.
The appointments were made by Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and ...
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Five reasons to visit MI5: Official Secrets
Blogs at The National Archives have a new home – The National Archives
Five reasons to visit MI5: Official Secrets From secret codes to never-before seen devices, here’s five reasons to visit our current MI5: Official Secrets exhibition. 
1. Discover how a bizarre message about dentistry helped D-Day succeed
During the Second World War MI5 ran an extensive network of double agents ...
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Happy & Glorious: Coronation art exhibition goes on show
News Archives - The National Archives
Happy & Glorious: Coronation art exhibition goes on show Stunning new artwork commissioned by the Government Art Collection to mark the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla has gone on show in our Happy & Glorious exhibition.
The free exhibition includes work by artists from across ...
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Philip Khoury to step down as vice provost for the arts
MIT News - History
Philip Khoury to step down as vice provost for the arts MIT Provost Cynthia Barnhart has announced that Vice Provost for the Arts Philip S. Khoury will step down from the position on Aug. 31. Khoury, the Ford International Professor of History, served in the role for 19 years. After a ...
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Three UK archives engaging new audiences for VE and VJ Day anniversaries
Blogs at The National Archives have a new home – The National Archives
Three UK archives engaging new audiences for VE and VJ Day anniversaries With the 80th anniversary of VE day now upon us, and VJ Day’s fast approaching, archives from all across the UK have been preparing to draw out fascinating stories about the Second World War generation from their collections.
Archives are perfectly ...
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Mandatory bag checks introduced for all visitors
News Archives - The National Archives
Mandatory bag checks introduced for all visitors Starting 29 April 2025, we are introducing new security measures to safeguard our visitors, staff and to protect our collections. Upon entering The National Archives’ building, all visitors’ bags, containers and other belongings will be searched by security staff.
Prohibited items ...
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Improvement work to our building continues
News Archives - The National Archives
Improvement work to our building continues Work to replace the windows in the 1970s part of our building continues and from June will move to the first floor. The work is due to be completed by the end of October. Our existing aluminium double-glazed windows are ...
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Beneath the biotech boom
MIT News - History
Beneath the biotech boom It’s considered a scientific landmark: A 1975 meeting at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California, shaped a new safety regime for recombinant DNA, ensuring that researchers would apply caution to gene splicing. Those ideas have been so useful ...
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Exploring the impacts of technology on everyday citizens
MIT News - History
Exploring the impacts of technology on everyday citizens Give Dwai Banerjee credit: He doesn’t pick easy topics to study.Banerjee is an MIT scholar who in a short time has produced a wide-ranging body of work about the impact of technology on society — and who, as a trained ...
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Decoding a medieval mystery manuscript
MIT News - History
Decoding a medieval mystery manuscript Two years ago, MIT professor of literature Arthur Bahr had one of the best days of his life. Sitting in the British Library, he was allowed to page through the Pearl-Manuscript, a singular bound volume from the 1300s containing the ...
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“An AI future that honors dignity for everyone”
MIT News - History
“An AI future that honors dignity for everyone” Ben Vinson III, president of Howard University, made a compelling call for artificial intelligence to be “developed with wisdom,” as he delivered MIT’s annual Karl Taylor Compton Lecture on campus Monday. The broad-ranging talk posed a series of searching questions about ...
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Letterlocking: A new look at a centuries-old practice
MIT News - History
Letterlocking: A new look at a centuries-old practice For as long as people have been communicating through writing, they have found ways to keep their messages private. Before the invention of the gummed envelope in 1830, securing correspondence involved letterlocking, an ingenious process of folding a flat sheet ...
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Times Higher Education ranks MIT No. 1 in arts and humanities, business and economics, and...
MIT News - History
Times Higher Education ranks MIT No. 1 in arts and humanities, business and economics, and... The 2025 Times Higher Education World University Ranking has ranked MIT first in three subject categories: Arts and Humanities, Business and Economics, and Social Sciences. The Times Higher Education World University Ranking is an annual publication of university rankings by Times Higher Education, ...
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An “All-American” vision of service to others
MIT News - History
An “All-American” vision of service to others Spencer Paysinger has already been many things in his life, including a Super Bowl-winning linebacker, a writer and producer of the hit television series “All-American,” and local-business entrepreneur. But as he explained during his keynote speech at MIT’s 51st annual ...
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