Inspiration

Every three years, the Ateneo de Manila University awards alumni who excelled in sports during their school days. They are inducted into the Ateneo Sports Hall of Fame, which has a room named after it in the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center. Some awardees donated their sports memorabilia—medals, trophies, jackets and jerseys—which are displayed in cases with their photo and a write-up of their sports accomplishments. Aside from recognizing the men and women who played for the school, the award, the room, and the displays also aim to inspire current student-athletes who train at the center to excel in their own sports.

Three-story artifact

 
The cylindrical building of the Manila Observatory was constructed to house one instrument, a spectroheliograph. Developed by George Hale in 1890 for his senior thesis in MIT, the spectroheliograph is an instrument used in astronomy and astrophysics to take photographic images of the sun.
 
This 1960s spectroheliograph is three stories high. Modern ones no longer need an entire building to house them.
 
The Manila Observatory no longer uses this spectroheliograph, but ideas to convert or repurpose it all proved to be too expensive.
   
A museum offered to buy it from the observatory, but the board of directors decided to say no. It is an important part of the history of the Manila Observatory and the Jesuits in the Philippines, after all.

Touch me not

The museum inside Fort Santiago in Intramuros dedicated to Philippine national hero Jose Rizal has one of the oldest existing copies of his novel "Noli Me Tangere." By writing the book, Rizal was trying to expose the injustices committed by the Spanish friars and government officials in the Philippines. It was first printed in Berlin in 1887.

Sharp and pointy

Inside Fort Santiago in Intramuros is a small museum dedicated to Philippine national hero Jose Rizal, who was imprisoned in the fort just before his execution by the Spanish colonial government. The museum houses some of his memorabilia, including this kit of medical instruments which Rizal used in his profession as a doctor. The thing is, he was an ophthalmologist—I don't think I'd want any of those tools anywhere near my eyes.

School artifact

The 1932 "Jesuit Bell," from the time when the Ateneo de Manila University was still located along Padre Faura Street in Manila. It is inscribed with the monogram IHS (iota-eta-sigma) from the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus, which also appears in the seal of the Society of Jesus.