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Institute Historian T. F. Peterson

Institute Historian T. F. Peterson has spent many years lurking in the corridors of MIT picking up gossip and monitoring hacks in progress.

Titles by This Author

Nightwork, Updated Edition

A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT
By Institute Historian T. F. Peterson

An MIT "hack" is an ingenious, benign, and anonymous prank or practical joke, often requiring engineering or scientific expertise and often pulled off under cover of darkness—instances of campus mischief sometimes coinciding with April Fool’s Day, final exams, or commencement.