massachusetts institute of technology

Media from: MIT launches 150th-anniversary celebration

Terms of use: Images for download on the MIT Media Relations website are made available to non-commercial entities, press and the general public under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license. You may not alter the images provided, other than to crop them to size. A credit line must be used when reproducing images; if one is not provided below, credit the images to "MIT."
contact: Sarah McDonnell - Assistant Media Relations Manager
email: s_mcd@mit.edu
phone: 617-253-8923
Public art
A scale model of Calder's La Grande Voile. This iconic piece of public art can be found on the MIT campus in McDermott Court, near the tall Green Building (Building 54).
Photo: Patrick Gillooly
(4288x2848px; 5,147 kB; image/jpeg)
> download image
Piano drop
The Baker House piano drop, which began as a hack in 1972 and turned into a quirky dormitory tradition, was the most popular item on the MIT 150 exhibition nomination website. This shattered piano is from the most recent drop.
Photo: Patrick Gillooly
(3545x2659px; 6,725 kB; image/jpeg)
> download image
Analog computer
Vannevar Bush’s first differential analyzer: This machine was capable of solving differential equations mechanically — a milestone in the development of modern analytical machines.
Photo: Patrick Gillooly
(2768x3604px; 5,371 kB; image/jpeg)
> download image
Wind-tunnel tests
Boston wind tunnel studies: In the 1970s and 1980s, Frank Durgin conducted several wind tunnel studies of Boston buildings, including a 1973 investigation of the John Hancock Tower’s window failure. This model is of part of the city of Boston.
Photo: Patrick Gillooly
(4288x2848px; 7,920 kB; image/jpeg)
> download image
Whirlwind
MIT’s Whirlwind was the first real-time computer. MIT and the U.S. military created Lincoln Laboratory in 1951 to turn Whirlwind into the SAGE computer- and radar-based air defense system.
Photo: Patrick Gillooly
(2848x4288px; 7,535 kB; image/jpeg)
> download image
Deborah Douglas
Deborah G. Douglas, the museum’s curator of science and technology, stands in front of a Formula SAE Race Car, which was designed, built and raced by MIT Motorsports.
Photo: Patrick Gillooly
(4288x2848px; 6,487 kB; image/jpeg)
> download image