CMU’s Posner Center: Rare books, papers, & objects — And the UK Poet Laureate, too!
This week on Forbes Avenue, we aired an interview with Samuel Lemley, Director of CMU’s Posner Center For Special Collections, in which he introduced us to the Center’s new location, discussed upcoming exhibitions and events, and explained the significance of the collection.
We toured the Posner Center’s current exhibition, Rare Books & Ancestral Machines, and discovered an Enigma cipher device from World War II; an excerpt from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, originally titled Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, that mocked 18th Century fascination with technology; a 17th Century Japanese guide to using an abacus; and other fascinating rare books and devices that are precursors to contemporary ideas and devices.
We also learned that working with original books, publications, objects, papers, and artwork can lead a student or a researcher to make fascinating discoveries about the work and the time the work was originally published.
Finally, Lemley reminded us that the UK Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, is coming to the Posner Center at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28, to give a lecture on Shakespearean sonnets and language and their effect on contemporary poetry. CMU’s copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays (1623) will be on display at the event.
Listen to the interview: Samuel Lemley
Credits:
Abriana Bensch, interviewer, researcher
Richard Gordon, interviewer, researcher, audio engineer, audio editor
Recorded: April 8, 2026
WRCT debut: April 14, 2026