Images from Protests Past

A display of Vietnam-War-era protest posters at the MIT Museum offers a colorful glimpse into a tumultuous time at the Institute. The exhibit, Telling It like It Is: Student Activism at MIT during the Vietnam War, was prompted by an unusual gift from Lawrence Linden, SM 70, PhD 76a bedsheet decorated with the iconic fist symbol and the words MIT Strike. The banner hung on campus during the national campus strike in May 1970, a nationwide protest against the Vietnam War. Linden, who was a member of ROTC, was not a protestor. Nevertheless, he cut down the banner after the strike and held onto it until the end of 2002, when he paid for its restoration. Several months later, after conservators touched it up, Linden donated the banner to the museum.

About half of the 15 posters on display are related to the campus strike, and the others are a sampling of antiwar posters from the late 1960s and early 70s. Many have distinctly MIT touches: two were silk-screened onto computer printouts, and one calls for all community members to participate in the strike, including students, faculty, groundsmenand keypunch operators. The posters will be on display through the fall.