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The MIT Museum Presents,
"Scopes, Stationwagons
and Solder:
Unexpected Images from the Rad Lab and RLE Collections"
For Immediate Release
FRIDAY, 10 February 2006
Contact: William Smith, Assistant
Director for Finance and Sponsor
Relations
Phone: +1.617.253.5621
Email: whs@mit.edu
CAMBRIDGE, MA. 02.10.2006
The Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announces
that the MIT Museum is presenting an exhibition entitled, "Scopes,
Stationwagons and Solder: Unexpected Images from the
Rad Lab and RLE Collections." The exhibition
highlights some of the most remarkable images from
one of MIT's artistic and historical treasures: the
MIT Radiation Laboratory (Rad Lab) and RLE photographic
negative collection.
"There has been no exhibition of these photos," said
Deborah Douglas, MIT Museum Curator of Science and
Technology, "and very little attention overall
given to this documentary genre. The exhibition both
showcases this important collection and the critical
work it documents and celebrates the end of our four-year
preservation project. The show will appeal to people
interested in industrial and lab-based photography
as well as those in search of engaging black-and-white
photos."
The MIT Museum's preservation project entailed
the cataloging and rehousing of nearly 24,000 images,
approximately 19,000 from the Rad Lab and approximately
5,000 from RLE. The images document the technology
of radar and electronics and reveal the life of these
historic labs from 1940 to 1962.
"As we begin preparations for celebrating RLE's
sixtieth anniversary year," said Jeffrey
H. Shapiro,
Director of RLE and Julius A. Stratton Professor of
Electrical Engineering, "this milestone exhibit
provides a fascinating presentation of documentary
photography that gives a sense of RLE's roots. Moreover,
it complements the sixtieth anniversary events that
will take place in the coming year that will outline
the remarkable research directions that today's RLE
is taking into tomorrow."
Said William
Smith, RLE's Assistant Director for Finance
and Sponsor Relations, "We are grateful for the
impressive effort of the Museum staff. RLE has worked
during the last three years to create a new collection
of digital images of RLE current research--all stored,
indexed, and managed in databases. We have five thousand
new images in this growing, contemporary collection.
This current effort continues the RLE documentary tradition
that the Museum has so expertly preserved. Together,
the archival and new RLE photographic collections form
a unique Institute resource recording the rich intellectual
and daily life of MIT as realized by the faculty, students
and staff of RLE."
"RLE provided crucial support that enabled this
project to continue its work after the initial grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities had
been exhausted," said Douglas. An RLE grant supported
costs during the period July 2003 to June 2004. The
final phase of the project was completed one year later
using Museum funds. All the negatives have now been
cataloged and rehoused.
The exhibition is being presented at the main gallery
of the MIT Museum through 11 June 2006. The MIT Museum
is located at 265 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA
02139.
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