The museum doesn't have a lot of exhibits but I enjoy the ones that are there, all being centred around technology and robotics where MIT was for many years at the leading edge.
After looking around and getting a morning coffee I head up to Harvard University where I take a walking tour by one of the student groups, it is a fairly light-hearted approach to the history, buildings and life on campus.
There were a couple of funny things on the tour that I should share...
1) The following photo is of a building that houses the offices of the president and top brass of Harvard. The top two levels are student dormitories. I'm willing to bet they vet the students picked to stay here for their hermit like abilities and lack of social life and parties.
2) The Harvard endowment fund is approaching something like US$30 Billion dollars. There is only one other private institution that has more money, the Roman Catholic Church, leading the second year student tour guide to the punch-line that the only person with more money than Harvard is in fact...god.
3) The following picture is of a guard house at the main gate. Over the years there hasn't been any love loss between the Harvard and the City of Cambridge which is the local government and has control over a lot of what the university does. Harvard tried to get the guard house built, the plans had to be approved by Cambridge, over 300 revisions later they finally came to agreement on design making the structure the most expensive building in all of Harvard by square foot.
4) There is a statue proudly on display in the middle of the campus to founder John Harvard pictured below. The only problem is there is three things wrong with the statue a) John Harvard didn't found the university, he just provided the starting money so it was named after him. b) The year of founding etched into the stone is incorrect and c) The statue isn't of John Harvard. By the time the statue was built records were lost and there was no picture of what he looked like.
Once the tour finished I walked across campus to the Harvard Museum of Natural History which had an impressive collection of specimens.
Changing tack for the afternoon I head over to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum which is on the campus of University of Massachusetts.
It has a museum that walks you through the lead up to, during and legacy of the Kennedy Presidency which was cut short with his assassination on 22nd November 1963.
The exhibits contain some of the now de-classified documents on the space race and Cuban missile crisis during his presidency which was interesting.
Once back in town I go for a short stroll around Chinatown before heading back to Vanessa and Tim's.
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