The back of a 1968 Chevy Corvair with wires coming out of the trunk. The license plate reads "TECH"
I'll be at #TedXMIT this Saturday talking a cross country electric car race... from 1968! If you're in Boston, come to the MIT Museum at 2:30 to learn just how many fires occurred along the way. 🔥 ⚡ 🔋 🏁
Register here: luma.com/mdx3v716
I can’t believe I wasn’t already following you!
Ohhhh, I did not know that! Today I learned something new! Thanks!
$240 worth of dollar bills.
I had a fun time over-explaining the history of the telephone for @wbur.org ☎️ At some point, I also demonstrated that while I have an intellectual understanding of how a rotary dial phone works, I didn't actually know how to dial the numbers!
And while I did note that I don't really play very many games in my personal life, I did spend a good deal of time playing Infocom's Infidel (1983) last week in preparation for a thing I've been writing. Like all other Infocom games, it's playable online.
bestdosgames.com/games/infide...
And our Restaurant at the End of the Universe material is here:
mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
Not digitized, but (hint hint nudge nudge) we will happily digitize things for a fee. Or you can come do research in person.
Another favorite is "European Travellers" where you can learn all about the people of continent. I am sad we don't have "The Produce of England" by the same publisher...
mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
And look at this nice copy of The Royal Game of the Dolphin [not whale, my bad!] (1821) we have!
mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
That's quite possibly the second funniest picture they could have chosen for the header. The funniest, of course, is this one-- the slide that reads only "profit"
mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
Anyway, go listen to me talk about games, I guess?
One less charming thing was this ad for floppy disks that I think is doing a mild homophobia (?). At the very least, it's definitely doing *something*
One charming thing was the snapshots he took from when he got the kits (from Santa, natch!).
Today at work I finished cataloging a collection of material related to someone's Heathkit H8. We got his computer, terminal, disk drive, and a whole bunch of archival material related to his computer (whom he called George) and various Heath Users Groups he was involved in over the years.
This week on the Video Game History Hour: We're joined by @flori-p.bsky.social, Associate Curator of Science and Technology at the MIT Museum!
Dr. Pierri trained as a natural history curator. So how did they end up working in game preservation? At MIT? The story of their career will surprise you!
Today in cataloguing recent acquisitions: A handy guide to computer terms (from The User's Guide, 1984)
Happy birthday to the bouncing ball!
In cataloging a collection (I'd say recent acquisition, but it came into the museum in 1996 🫠), I came across an witheringly devastating burn. "You may never have heard of his theory, but you certainly missed nothing."
mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
“This should be a trigger warning— it’s a syllabus” 😂😂😂 @profnoctis.bsky.social at #PAXEast talks about his class Mythos to Logos, which uses Final Fantasy games to teach religious studies.
And the Harvard Museum of Natural History has a sea monster exhibit. Something clearly is in the water….
I’m betting it can be made available in a year or so 😉 It would be very funny, especially since when I was explaining this exhibit, more than one person asked “animal or country?”
I’m at a very fun panel about the MIT Mystery Hunt at #PAXEast. Apparently advice given before the hunt includes “please shower,” which is especially important for the longer hunts… 😂
There’s some Market Basket product placement at #PaxEast 😂
And now, from early modern whales, I’m off to #PAXEast to work my my next exhibition project— computer games! If you’re interested in game history, game preservation, or how do you exhibit a game in a museum, anyway? send me a DM. I’d love to chat!
And I thought, how silly! Narwhals don't have two tusks, you liar.
Except some of them *do*! A month after I saw that, I went to an exhibit about narwhals at the Smithsonian Natural History museum and they had a skull with two tusks! Sorry for doubting you, John Ray's interlocutor...
I once came across a letter to the naturalist John Ray that said something along the lines of-- yeah, unicorns don't exist. The horns [sic] come from these fish up north. I saw one, and it had two tusks, and the one-tusked ones are the "monsters."
And another lovely review in @nautil.us, which points out my favorite fact that I learned during my dissertation research-- that some narwhals actually have two tusks!
nautil.us/thar-be-mons...
It got a very generous review from the @bostonglobe.com. "Something to spout about," indeed! 🐳 💙
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/01/a...
After months of posting about Whales! Whales! Whales! the exhibit is finally up!
mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
We're disappointed to see Ben Barres's powerful book "The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist" among the ~400 titles removed from the Naval Academy Library. Needless to say, we're proud to have published his book and will keep it — and his memory — alive.
A person wearing a brown dress, purple cardigan, and green boots standing next to a narwhal tusk mounted onto a black board.
I don’t think that it was curatorially necessary for me to be around for the mounting of the narwhal tusk, but it sure did make me happy!