 The MIT Museum was founded in 1971 and collects , preserves , and exhibits artifacts significant to the culture and history of MIT . The Museum now engages in significant educational outreach programs for the general public , including the annual Cambridge Science Festival , the first celebration of this kind in the United States . Since 2005 , its official mission has been , " to engage the wider community with MIT 's science , technology and other areas of scholarship in ways that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century " . 
