Gems from the Museum

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Saturday Morning Exercises

As the designated land grant institution for mechanical arts in Massachusetts, MIT was obliged to teach military tactics to its students. So every Saturday morning during the Institutes early years, students had to don waist-length wool jackets, one of which is on display in the museum, and devote several hours to military exercises. These exercises were the only university events that brought the entire student body together. Soon, however, students discovered their mutual interests outside of academics and formed sports teams and clubs and started the schools paper, the Tech. By the time MIT moved from Boston to Cambridge in 1916, it had developed its identity as a collegiate institution and established the foundation for the campus culture that exists today.