National Cryptology Museum

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Date: Thu, 3 Feb 94 14:08:06 -0500
From: hunter () work nlm nih gov (Larry Hunter)
Subject: National Cryptology Museum


Following up on Jeremy Epstein's note in RISKS 15.41, I went to visit the
National Cryptology Museum, and can recommend it.  It's open 9am-3pm weekdays
and by appointment.  It's basically one large room, with several interesting
displays; my favorite was 7 volumes from the NSA rare book collection,
including the oldest published work on cryptology, Johannes Trithemius'
"Polygraphiae," first published in 1517.  They also had a Pace-10 analog
computer, and IBM Harvest and a Cray XMP-24 on display.  There were nice
historical displays on Yarley & the Black Chamber, US Civil War crypto and a
US Revolutionary War era crypto device (the M-94) that may have been designed
by Thomas Jefferson.  The largest display was dedicated to Enigma and the
device for cracking it, Bombe.  There is a working Enigma that visitors can
use!  There are a few displays that are more current: pictures of the NSA
buildings and director and a description of NSA's Special Processing Lab (SPL)
which does special purpose chip fabrication.  There was the expected KGB
stuff, and a quote from George Washington about the importance of "keeping the
whole matter secret."


The curator, Jack Ingrams, was friendly and eager to answer (some) questions.
He said that since the Washington Post article, traffic had been about 25-30
people a day, and that they will be on TV this week, which he expects to
further increase the number of visitors.  He was curious about the RISKS
posting and internet, so if anybody who sees this talks to him while visiting,
mention the net.  He also said that they will be opening the unclassified
portion of their crypto library to scholars sometime in the summer.  The
handout on the museum also says that the FOIA reading room shares space with
the library.


Obligatory RISK-y note: Ingrams mentioned that the museum opened to NSA
personnel in October, and to the general public around Christmas time.  A
quick glance through the guest sign-in book shows that the fourth visitor to
the museum, on October 29, was one Duane Whitlock, who listed his employer as
C&P Telephone, our local baby bell.  hmmm.