In June of last year, the Program in Science, Technology and Society (STS) organized the “MIT Symposium on the History of Technology: Past, Present, and Future” to celebrate the legacy of Prof. Merritt Roe Smith on the occasion of his retirement. Speakers at the symposium were invited to share ideas about new interpretive approaches to the history of technology, as well as to point out topics that would benefit from more scholarly attention. The symposium format encouraged open-ended discussion, with the goal of prompting fresh thinking about the field.
Now the papers presented at that symposium have been made available to the MIT community and the public at a dedicated website created by graduate student Kelcey Gibbons. The website also presents an interview with Prof. Smith, as well as a link to a set of lecture videos on MIT OpenCourseWare, from the course STS.050 The History of MIT which Prof. Smith and Prof. David Mindell taught in 2011.
Prof. Smith has in fact been one of the more prolific contributors to MIT OpenCourseWare over the years. In addition to STS.050, he has also published the materials from five other courses:
- STS.001 Technology in American History
- STS.025J Making the Modern World: The Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective
- STS.427 The Civil War and the Emergence of Modern America, 1861-1890
- STS.462 Social and Political Implications of Technology
- 21H.116J The Civil War and Reconstruction
In his career of more than fifty years as a professional historian and educator, Prof. Smith certainly made an impact on the lives of countless students and helped shape the field of history of technology. By sharing his course materials on MIT OpenCourseWare, he has ensured that that impact can continue into the future and that his teaching can reach an even larger audience of learners.
