| Acquisitions
Museum Artifacts
One of the biggest challenges for any museum is the ability to rotate
and refresh its displays and exhibits periodically in order to attract
new and repeat visitors to the museum. This ability requires having
both additional artifacts in storage, and an active acquisitions
program to acquire new artifacts and collectibles to use in future
museum displays. We are pleased to say the National Cryptologic Museum
(NCM) has both.
On Display and In Storage
Only a very small fraction of the material in the Museum’s
inventory is on display or available through the NCM Library. The
Museum curator and staff have recently undertaken a major initiative
to catalog and database the entire inventory of museum holdings.
This is an enormous task that will take many months to complete.
New acquisitions occur monthly. Some are incorporated into existing
displays almost immediately, while others are placed in storage waiting
for their turn to be presented to the viewing public.
The Acquisition Committee: Who Are We?
The Foundation’s Acquisition Committee (AC) currently consists
of Dave D’Auria (Chairman) and David Hamer (Vice Chairman). Dave
D’Auria is a retired senior executive career NSA employee and
former collector and airborne direction finding specialist with the
USAF Security Service (now the Electronic Security Command – ESC). David
Hamer is our United Kingdom liaison officer and an extremely knowledgeable
expert on a variety of historic cryptographic systems. Together
they form the core of our new acquisitions team.
The Acquisition Process: What Do We Look For?
As our name implies we are the National Cryptologic Museum
and we therefore look for items that have specific and direct cryptographic
significance. Those are often the easiest items to identify
(e.g., a rare cipher machine or encryption device) but the hardest
items to find. And when we do find them they are usually very
expensive and often beyond our financial means to acquire without
help from donors and sponsors. We have been fortunate in the past
that donors (both identified and anonymous) have helped us with specific
acquisitions of very expensive but cryptologically and historically
significant cryptographic devices.
Our acquisition interests are not just limited
to rare cipher machines and books on cryptology. We also look for
items related to cryptology such as pamphlets, rare manuscripts,
advertising-related items, movies and old security posters, and
other “period” pieces such
as newspapers and other items that enhance the displays we present
at the Museum. Some examples of period pieces we have recently acquired
for the Museum are pictured below.
The Acquisition Process: Where Do We Look?
We use a traditional and eclectic mix of sources to acquire new items
for the Museum. In the recent past those sources have included private
collectors of cryptographic memorabilia; antique malls and shows; flea
markets; former employees of NSA; our contractor partners; private
donors; and, yes even eBay. We are pleased to say that many items
are donated at no cost to the Foundation. Others have cost many thousands
of dollars to acquire. The search goes on daily.
Significant Acquisitions: The Kahn Collection
Dr. David Kahn is an esteemed author who’s book The Codebreakers
is widely acknowledged as the most comprehensive book ever written
on the history, art and science of codebreaking. In addition to being
an author of renown, he also had one of the world’s rarest collections
of books, papers and artifacts related to the art and science of cryptology. We
are extremely gratified to say that much of that collection is now
the prized possession of the NCM and Library.
Since 2004 Dr. Kahn has made three large donations
to the Foundation comprising well over 150 boxes of personal papers,
manuscripts and rare memorabilia. Among the more significant items
from his earlier donations were the first book ever published on
codes and ciphers; the entire set of Dr. Kahn’s original manuscripts
for The Codebreakers; rare advertising posters from old movies with
intelligence and espionage themes; and, an old German-made hand-held
cipher substitution wheel. We also received dozens of rare first
edition books on cryptology, many personally inscribed by the authors
to Dr. Kahn.
The centerpiece of his latest donation was
an original carbon copy of Herbert Yardley’s editor’s manuscript for The American
Black Chamber. Written in 1931 this book provided details of America’s
first peacetime cryptanalytic organization, MI-8, the forerunner of
today’s National Security Agency. Other significant items
included uncorrected proof copies of Dr. Kahn’s books Kahn on
Codes and Hitler’s Spies; numerous English and foreign language
pamphlets on cryptology from the late 1800s and early 1900s; and, many
commercial books and pamphlets on cryptology and secret writing written
immediately before and during World War II.
A number of Dr. Kahn’s donated items are already on display
at the NCM or available for review in the Museum Library. The picture
below shows Dr. Kahn bequeathing his latest donation to Dave D’Auria,
the Chairman of the Foundation’s Acquisition Committee. An
interesting side note: the house in the framed picture in the background
was Dr. Kahn’s boyhood home. The room on the extreme left is
where the Codebreakers was written in its entirety.
Significant Acquisitions: Five-Rotor Hebern Cipher Machines
The National Cryptologic Museum recently added two very rare five-rotor
Hebern cipher machines to its collection (pictured below). The Hebern
Electric Company built what is acknowledged to be the first five-rotor
cipher machine in the 1920's (a number of others were designed independently
about the same time). Although this machine was never widely manufactured
or used, it is cryptologically significant as part of the overall evolution
in U.S. manufactured rotor devices. We believe these two five-rotor
machines are the only two that have survived. Financial assistance
to acquire the Heberns came from an anonymous donor.
 Significant Acquisitions: World War I Trench Code Material
Trench codes were used for secrecy by field armies in World War I
(WW I). The French pioneered the initial development of trench codes
in 1916 followed closely by the Germans. U.S. Army Captain Howard R.
Barnes was a pioneer in the rapid production and distribution of trench
codes used by U.S. field armies.
Through the generous donation of a former U.S. Navy cryptologist the
Foundation recently acquired a large scrapbook of personal papers,
books and artifacts of Captain Barnes.
The scrapbook included: a "Front Line Code Book" marked SECRET #11902
with a list of two letter digraph codes to be used for communications
to and from the trenches; a "MOHAWK Code" code book marked SECRET with
a list of four number dinomic codes to be issued to all combatant troops
down to Battalion; an Emergency Digraph Code list marked SECRET to
be used with the "HURON CODE" for inter-division level communications;
and, a pamphlet governing the regulation, distribution care and use
of trench code books.
Other significant items included a 28x40 WW
I Reconnaissance map of allied-occupied Coblenz Germany listing and
plotting the location of all U.S., British and French troops and
units, and an 8x11 hardbound book: THE FIRST BATTALION (the Story
of the 406th Telegraph Battalion, Signal Corp, USA) Copyright 1921.
The First Battalion was recruited entirely from Bell Telephone telegraph
workers in Pennsylvania. This book tells their entire story. Pictures
of select items from Captain Barnes collection are included below.
A complete WW I Mohawk Trench Code
The 406th were all Pennsylvania
Bell Telegraph Employees Acquisitions: An Eclectic Mix
Our acquisition interests are not just limited to rare cipher machines
and books on cryptology. In the recent past we have acquired many artifacts
of unusual interest. They include a rare WW I Army Signal Corps poster;
a rare Jedburg Silk used by Special Operations Element units to communicate
with London HQ during WW II; 80 photographs of a WW II era Code Room
in Washington D.C.; four first day stamp covers issued by the UK to
memorialize Bletchley Park; two rare bronze and copper Chinese cipher
locks that use combinations of Chinese words to open the devices; and
a U.S. first day cover stamp of the German Enigma machine issued to
commemorate the work of U.S. and allied cryptologists during WW II.
Some of the unusual items acquired in 2007 are depicted below.
Soviet Flag From Votinsk
WW I USA Field Phone
WW II Pacific Tropics Minerva Radio
1958 Cipher Board Game
WW II Security Poster
Morse Code Training Course
Acquisitions: For the Future
The Acquisition Committee would like to create an artifacts wish list
to focus our acquisition efforts. No such list exists today, and most
items we do acquire for the Museum are acquired either fortuitously
(someone hears about the NCMF) or through the philanthropic benevolence
of donors (such as Dr. Kahn’s donations). We've been fortunate
to have such opportunities and obviously hope that acquisitions such
as these will continue.
We would, however, like to change our role
from one of mostly “gatherers” of
artifacts to one of both “hunters” and “gatherers.” We
want to begin targeting the acquisition of specific pieces for the
Museum’s collection. In the absence of appropriated funds for
acquisitions, a sustained fund raising campaign to support acquisitions,
or any sustained acquisition-related partnerships, the "hunting" and "targeting'
of artifacts has either not been possible or not been tried in the
past. We'd like to change that.
A critical component of knowing what to “hunt and target” is
knowing what you already have in your inventory. Up to now the Museum
did not have a viable interactive artifacts database. The construction
of that database is an important work in progress. Once completed
we hope to work with the Museum curator and staff to develop an artifacts "Top
X Wish List". The list should be unconstrained and reflect items of
historic and/or technological significance warranting the potential
cost of acquisition, and befitting of display at our nation’s
Museum. Once our Top X Wish List is developed, synthesized, prioritized
and approved, we can then pursue a range of options to acquire the
most desirable and available artifacts for the museum, most likely
in partnership with our benefactors.
Acquisitions: The Committee’s
Extended Network
You don't have to be an appointed Board or Committee member to play
a potentially significant role in helping the Foundation with the
important task of acquiring new artifacts for the Museum. In a recent
example, an Agency alumna called the Foundation to report a cryptographic
item of interest she saw being appraised on the Antiques Road Show
television series! In another example one of our alum visited a Navajo
Codetalkers Museum in the mid west and brought back a Navajo Codetalker
doll. Since travel and antiquing are popular pastimes for many of
our alumni, please keep us in mind and don't hesitate to call and
report on any cryptographic rarities or other items of interest you
come across along the way. You can call the Foundation’s main
office at 301-688-5436 or send an email to CRYPTMF@aol.com for
the acttention and action by the Acquisition Committee.
Acquisitions: What More Can
You Do?
Many of NSA’s alumni, associates and partners are skilled and
versed in some area of cryptology, and all have unique experience and
knowledge that may contribute to acquiring new items of interest or
constructing a Top X Wish List. Here’s some additional help you
can provide! I respectfully ask that you each do some individual brainstorming
and send us your thoughts, suggestions and ideas on acquisitions. Please
be as explicit as possible with respect to:
- specific equipment (e.g., a cipher machine, encryptor/decryptor,
etc.)
- intelligence stories (for which declassified documents may exist)
- period pieces (to enhance and/or embellish either of the above)
- places to look (e.g., libraries that may hold related-historic artifacts)
- individual and/or private collectors that may present opportunities
for us
- other people to talk to (who may have more precise information of
value)
- other potentially unique display items (e.g., the spy-related toy
display)
- any other ideas and suggestions you wish to offer
Please give this some serious thought and send
us your input. We will work with the Museum staff and others to develop
and prioritize the Top X Wish List and determine how to proceed in
acquiring specific items for the Museum’s collection.
Acquisitions: Do You Have Any
Cryptographic Artifacts?
At one of our general membership meetings one of our Foundation members
offered to donate a cryptographic item he had received from the Agency
in recognition for his project management work. Other retired Foundation
members are now starting to downsize and are looking for “a
good home” for some of their career-related mementos. Scale
models of cryptographic items, rare photos of cryptologic sites and
platforms, rare books and manuscripts on cryptology, and models of
cipher machines, wheels and discs are just a few of the items the
Foundation and Museum would be very interested in helping you preserve
for posterity. So, please remember the Foundation and Museum as you
get ready to make those hard decisions to part with any cryptographic
related artifacts you may have acquired in the course of your career.
Thanks in advance for your time, energy, knowledge
and insight, and your critically needed help.
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