Rare Books & Ancestral Machines

About this event

The Posner Center is a cabinet of rarities and technological marvels: paper-and-string cipher machines, centuries-old books, cogwheel computers and 19th century "digital" images. Part museum and part laboratory, it is a site for discovery, research, and innovation with the m aterials of the past.Rare Books and Ancestral Machines features more than 30 books and objects from the Posner Center's holdings. Many of these materials are on view for the first time. The exhibition inaugurates the newly renovated Center, surveying its collections and tracing more than four centuries of scientific inquiry and learning. Organized into five thematic sections - mechanical computing, robotics, cryptography, art ificial intelligence, and scholarly method - the exhibit explores the histories of these disciplines, uncovering abandoned prototypes and long-forgotten technologies. What will you discover?Exhibit Hours During the summer, the Posner Center operates by appointment only. Contact Sam Lemley (mailto:samlemley@cmu.edu) to make an appointment to visit the exhibit. Public open hours will resume the first full week of the fall 2026 semester as follows:Monday, closed Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. (Reading Room and Exhibitions) Thursday, 3-7 p.m. (Exhibitions only) Learn more about University Libraries Special Collections (https://library.cmu.edu/distinctive-collections/special-collections).ies and technological marvels: paper-and-string cipher machines, centuries-old books, cogwheel computers and 19th century "digital" images. Part museum and part laboratory, it is a site for discovery, research, and innovation with the materials of the past.

Rare Books and Ancestral Machines

features more than 30 books and objects from the Posner Center's holdings. Many of these materials are on view for the first time. The exhibition inaugurates the newly renovated Center, surveying its collections and tracing more than four centuries of scientific inquiry and learning. Organized into five thematic sections - mechanical computing, robotics, cryptography , artificial intelligence, and scholarly method - the exhibit explore s the histories of these disciplines, uncovering abandoned prototypes and long-forgotten technologies.

What will you discover?

Exhibit Hours

During the summer, the Posner Center operates

by appointment only. Contact

Sam Lemley

to make an appointment to visit the exhibit.

Public open hours will resume the first full week of the fall 2026 semester as follows:

Monday, closed

Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. (Reading Room and Exhibitions)

Thursday, 3-7 p.m. (Exhibitions only)

Learn more about

University Libraries Special Collections .