Welcome to the IHTFP Gallery!

The IHTFP Gallery is dedicated to documenting the history of hacking at MIT.

The word hack at MIT usually refers to a clever, benign, and "ethical" prank or practical joke, which is both challenging for the perpetrators and amusing to the MIT community (and sometimes even the rest of the world!). Note that this has nothing to do with computer (or phone) hacking (which we call "cracking").

(More About the IHTFP Gallery and FAQ.)

Recent News...

2022.10.02 - MIT Museum reopens in Kendall Square
In October 2022, the MIT Museum opened in a new 56,000 sq. ft. space at 314 Main Street in Kendall Square. The Museum is also home to the MIT Hacks Collection, an archive of physical hacking artifacts dating to 1969.

2017.02.03 - Hack, Punt, Tool: Revival!
In IAP 2017, MIT's Musical Theatre Guild staged a revival of the 2012 MIT-hacking musical, Hack, Punt, Tool. A full recording can be found here, and fun behind-the-scenes materials (such as past-and-present cast matchups!) can be found on the Hack, Punt, Tool website.

2014.03.04 - Hack Madness
To honor this MIT custom, the MIT Alumni Association is holding Hack Madness: The MIT Tournament of Hacks, a two-week contest to determine the Institute’s greatest hack.

2012.04.20 - Tetris on the Green Building!!!
Someone finally pulled off Tetris on the Green Building and it's up there and live now! More details to come...

2007.05.19 - Syndicated news feed added to the Gallery
There's now an

xml/atom syndication feed of recent gallery news and write-up additions. This is also available through the mit_hacks feed on LiveJournal.

2007.05.11 - Site updates in progress
This site is undergoing significant updates. Some hacks after 1997 are missing write-ups and photos, but we're working on improving this. The timeline from 1997-present should be up-to-date, so please let us know if we're missing anything from it.

[More News...]