On January 22, the University Libraries hosted “Fine and Rare VI: Rare Books and Ancestral Machines.” At the virtual event, Curator of Special Collections Sam Lemley invited attendees inside the newly renovated Posner Center for Special Collections, a cabinet of rarities and technological marvels where paper-and-string cipher machines, centuries-old books, cogwheel computers, and nineteenth-century “digital” images sit side by side. A recording of the event is now available.
Part museum and part laboratory, the Center is a space for discovery, research, and innovation with the materials of the past. As a whole, Special Collections is envisioned as an interdisciplinary workshop where humanistic modes of inquiry combine with innovative tools to study historical technologies, books, and artifacts. The diverse and valuable collections fuel transformative exhibitions, groundbreaking research, and other programs that bring students, scholars, and members of the public into Special Collections and CMU’s Libraries.
In this installment of Fine & Rare, Lemley introduced “Rare Books & Ancestral Machines,” an exhibition featuring more than thirty rare books, instruments, and early computing devices — many on public view for the first time. Organized into five thematic sections — mechanical computing, robotics, cryptography, artificial intelligence, and scholarly method — the exhibition surveys over four centuries of scientific inquiry, uncovering abandoned prototypes and long-forgotten technologies.
If you enjoyed this event, please consider supporting the Libraries with a gift to the Special Collections Acquisition Fund. Your donations fund acquisitions that make possible transformative exhibitions, research, and other programs that bring students, scholars, and members of the public into Special Collections and the Libraries.