When alumni opened the first issue of The Technology Review in January 1899, they found not only a description of MIT’s new Pierce Building but crisp photographs of its interiors as well. The second issue featured photos of the varsity football team and an alumni banquet in Chicago that looped in 130 long-distance guests by phone. Photographs continued to appear regularly, offering alumni a window into the first Tech Reunions in 1904, stunning views of the Grand Canyon in 1905, and more. In 1922, the magazine also began publishing scientific articles with accompanying photos.
MIT
Although Life is often credited with pioneering cover photos when it relaunched in 1936 as a photo-driven magazine, Technology Review had been running full-page photo covers since 1931. Inside, its editors embraced photography to help chronicle the evolution of both MIT and science, showcasing the beauty and elegance of engineering and providing early glimpses of technologies like computers, nuclear power, television, radar, high-powered microscopes, and accelerators—and the planet itself.
These images appeared in the magazine between 1930 and the mid-1970s, an era bookended by innovations in photography and imaging led by Professor Harold “Doc” Edgerton, SM ’27, ScD ’31.
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