 In 1916 , the MIT administration and the MIT charter crossed the Charles River on the ceremonial barge Bucentaur built for the occasion , to signify MIT 's move to a spacious new campus largely consisting of filled land on a mile @-@ long tract along the Cambridge side of the Charles River . The neoclassical " New Technology " campus was designed by William W. Bosworth and had been funded largely by anonymous donations from a mysterious " Mr. Smith " , starting in 1912 . In January 1920 , the donor was revealed to be the industrialist George Eastman of Rochester , New York , who had invented methods of film production and processing , and founded Eastman Kodak . Between 1912 and 1920 , Eastman donated $ 20 million ( $ 236 @.@ 2 million in 2015 dollars ) in cash and Kodak stock to MIT . 
