Published: Boston, 1937 The Federal Writers’ Project was a New Deal work relief program of the Works Progress Administration. From 1935 to 1939, the project employed around 5,000 people a year (a fraction of those enrolled in WPA programs overall), as writers, editors, and information-gatherers. The purpose of the Writers’ Project was to create a state-by-state “American Guide Series” of publications, in order to present a collective vision of America that drew on the richness and diversity of the people, history, and culture to be found in each state. (It was sort of like writing about 150 different books, to […]

Published: Shanghai, 1936 It seems like you can’t turn on the TV or open a newspaper without hearing another report or reading another editorial about the rise of China. The country’s increasingly prominent position on the world political stage and its economy’s dazzling growth have convinced many observers that China is on track to becoming the world’s next superpower. MIT has certainly taken notice, and the Institute’s Greater China Global Initiative outlines curriculum changes, increased collaboration, and other proposed actions in recognition of this development. In the realms of science and technology, it has long been clear that China produces […]

Published: New York, 1935 In 1901, 27-year-old William H. Ukers worked as an editor for The Spice Mill, the in-house magazine of the Jabez Burns coffee company.  Taking note of a growing trend, he suggested to his boss that the magazine expand to become a trade journal.  The boss dismissed the idea, Ukers summarily quit, and the rest is coffee and tea history – literally. As legend has it, Ukers started The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal that very day.  He would devote his entire career to the journal and its publishing imprint, which fused up-to-date reportage with historical and […]

Published: Germany, 1934 Walter Gropius, a noted pioneer of modern architecture, founded the Bauhaus in 1919 in Weimar, Germany. The school focused on architecture, design, crafts and art with the goal of imbuing students with an understanding of the arts and craftsmanship. Students at the Bauhaus trained in workshops that provided practical, hands-on experience across disciplines. The workshops stressed collaboration with industry and the production of high-quality items that could be mass-produced and sold at a reasonable price. The most commercially successful products to come out of the Bauhaus workshops were the wallpapers designed in the mural-painting workshop. Bauhaus wallpapers […]

Published: New York, 1933 Variously praised as a major exposé and criticized as unfounded sensationalism, this wake-up call to American consumers, describing the harmful chemicals found in products they used every day, was a bestseller when it was published. Who could resist such thought-provoking chapter titles as “A Steady Diet of Arsenic and Lead,” “Prescriptions, Magic, and Poison,” and “The Quack and the Dead”? The MIT community certainly couldn’t resist. The Libraries accessioned this book on 1 February 1934. Very little time had passed since its publication, and interest in the title hadn’t waned. Our copy’s date-due slip is covered […]

Published: Washington, 1932 Francis LaFlesche was the son of the last Omaha head chief. He eventually became an ethnologist for the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution. Among many notable accomplishments, his effort to capture and preserve a record of tribal culture yielded hours of recordings of Osage chants and ceremonies that would otherwise have been lost forever. The Library of Congress, which now holds the recordings, considers LaFlesche’s Osage work “very probably the most exhaustive documentation of complete Indian ceremonies ever produced.” This volume, published the year he died, remains the definitive dictionary of the Osage language […]

Published: Paris, 1931 The use of cameras was not permitted during deliberations at the League of Nations (1919-1947), but the press corps did include pictorial reporters, illustrators, and cartoonists. Among them were the creators of the Testament de Genève. After meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1922, Aloysius Derso and Emery Kelen, both Jewish expatriates from Hungary, would collaborate for some thirty years. Known for their humorous reports on current affairs and politics, they directed their gaze and their wit to the goings-on in the world of diplomacy at the League of Nations. In the Testament de Genève, Derso & Kelen’s […]

Published: Boston, 1930 When the Boston Stock Exchange was organized in 1834, the typical trading scene was a far cry from the chaotic, electronic scene of today. “In the old days,” we learn, “there were no telephones, no tickers, no wildly gesticulating crowds. A ‘seat’ was a literal fact at that time, for every member had a particular chair and desk and was forbidden to trade out of it.” The text maintains this light and informative tone. At the same time, though, the Exchange exploits the opportunity presented by this publication to boldly endorse its own existence. It reminds readers, […]

Published: Philadelphia, 1929 85 years before MIT’s sesquicentennial, the United States celebrated a 150th birthday of its own. The Sesqui-Centennial International Exhibition was held in Philadelphia from May 31 through November 30, 1926 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. As the introduction to this text breathlessly declares, the fair “invited the American people to assemble at the most sacred spot on the American continent; upon the most important date in the entire history of political liberty; and to commemorate an event farther reaching in its effect than any which has transpired since the […]

Published: New York, 1928. Walk into any rare book library and chances are the librarian could retrieve a modest selection of fine leather bindings. Made from materials of the highest quality and crafted by expert hands, these bindings are generally found on books befitting such special treatment – literary landmarks, important first editions, and unique manuscripts are good examples. It’s much less common, however, to see a fine binding on an ordinary Funk & Wagnalls English language dictionary from 1928. This particular dictionary was bound for and sold by Yamanaka & Company, a prestigious international firm specializing in Asian art […]