Flori Pierri
banner
flori-p.bsky.social
Flori Pierri
@flori-p.bsky.social
Associate curator of science and technology at the MIT Museum | historian of science | really likes armadillos | currently thinking about computer games | 🌈
In cataloging a collection (I'd say recent acquisition, but it came into the museum in 1996 🫠), I came across an witheringly devastating burn. "You may never have heard of his theory, but you certainly missed nothing."

mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
June 27, 2025 at 4:28 PM
“This should be a trigger warning— it’s a syllabus” 😂😂😂 @profnoctis.bsky.social at #PAXEast talks about his class Mythos to Logos, which uses Final Fantasy games to teach religious studies.
May 9, 2025 at 4:17 PM
There’s some Market Basket product placement at #PaxEast 😂
May 8, 2025 at 4:09 PM
I don’t think that it was curatorially necessary for me to be around for the mounting of the narwhal tusk, but it sure did make me happy!
April 3, 2025 at 4:02 PM
This was a fun thing to see in the reference queue. What gets me is the 'sent from my iphone' at the end.

Our reference assistant is top notch and definitely not a grub. Be in touch if you want to license any of the MIT Museum's images for your next publication.

mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
March 28, 2025 at 8:33 PM
And right next to them, two versions of the same 18th century ship, the Great Harry.
March 20, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Are you heading to Boston for #RSA2025 and find yourself with some time to kill? We have no shortage of museums, but for something a little off the beaten track, you can visit these two delightful early modern whales, currently on display in "Moving Objects" at the MIT Museum in Cambridge.
March 20, 2025 at 12:59 PM
“Utopia Ltd” poster, 1969.

From the tremendously good MIT Office of Design Services.
March 20, 2025 at 2:56 AM
He looks like the sweet buttercup we adopted from the streets of Baltimore. 10/10 recommend a Baltimore alley cat, even if she does keep rummaging in the trash.
March 20, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Hello beautiful.

William Ware, Sketch of a capital, circa 1870.

mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
March 14, 2025 at 4:40 PM
I just love seeing what's going through the digitization pipeline, mostly for the sheer randomness of it all. Wedgewood plates! Brochures! Protests of the 2023 and the 1970 variety! Ship plans! and so much more!
March 4, 2025 at 11:06 PM
I'm processing records of photographs taken at the MIT Radiation Laboratory during WWII, and this photo was titled "Dr. G. Goldman and his equipment. And I can't help but wonder... is the dude in the adult-sized crib part of the equipment?!?
February 7, 2025 at 9:04 PM
How I want all of my emails to find me.
January 29, 2025 at 2:04 AM
When I was still dissertating and a very heavy user of Google Books (and very occasional user of The Site Formerly Known as Bird), I'd post the accidental Google scan hands I came across. This one (from Thomas Beale's The natural history of the sperm whale) is the first one I've seen in a long time.
January 27, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Maybe next year I'll be a giant glass of coca cola or a can of Karo corn syrup.....

(MIT Museum, GCP-00067067 mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...)
January 10, 2025 at 3:46 PM
A variety of snowflake forms, from Cornelis Gijsbertsz Zorgdrager's Alte und neue Grönländische Fischerei und Wallfischfang (1723)

Sheet from the MIT Museum, AF-ND-0738

mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
December 23, 2024 at 6:06 PM
How do I become a member so I can hang out in this lounge for the Museum of Modern Art?

I.M. Pei, "Members Lounge for the Museum of Modern Art" (1940)

mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
December 18, 2024 at 6:55 PM
Along with a book that used to be in the Infocom library. If he gets around to returning it, I bet the fines are going to be astounding.
December 17, 2024 at 1:57 AM
Today at work I picked up a donation of material from co-creator of Zork, Dave Lebling. He gave us his old Dungeons and Dragons books. 🐉🧌🪨🗿
December 17, 2024 at 1:53 AM
Love is when someone checks out two volumes of The German Single Leaf Woodcut, 1600-1700 because your library doesn’t have a copy and you don’t want to wait for and interlibrary loan to check just a few things. 🥰🥰🥰
December 9, 2024 at 3:30 AM
You've seen mermaid, but can I interest you in crustaceanman?
December 4, 2024 at 2:51 AM
Another whale I'd like to pet! And this one is currently on display at the MIT Museum if you want to see it. No petting allowed. Sorry.

(MIT Museum, AF-JX-0957)
December 1, 2024 at 12:21 PM
What a supremely silly whale. If I were Jonah, I'd just reach over and pet it.

(MIT Museum, AF-JX-0951)

mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
December 1, 2024 at 12:16 PM
Sorry early Christians, this is so #notawhale.

This image is from *De Roma Sotterranea* by Antoine Bosio and has engravings of panels found in early Christian cemeteries.

MIT Museum, AF-JI-0929

mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/...
November 26, 2024 at 10:14 PM
Sperm whale with jaunty little man holding a ladder for scale.

(MIT Museum, AF-GA-1117)
November 25, 2024 at 8:53 PM