On 13 November 2010, National Cryptologic Museum (NCM) librarian Rene Stein traveled to Dr. David Kahn’s residence in Great Neck, NY to pick-up 16 boxes of memorabilia from David’s personal collection. Significant items in this donation included:
–An early proof copy of his book on American cryptographer Herbert Yardley (The Reader of Gentlemen’s Mail)
–A number of early “private” code books used by American banks and telecommunications companies
–A 1943 Combined Field Code Book from WW II used to encode tactical communications between cooperating American and British forces
–A significant number of WW II era black and white photographs of Bletchley Park, and of British and American cryptographers
–Extensive correspondence and photographs from David’s time living abroad in Paris
On 16 January 2011, Acquisitions Chairman (AC) Dave D’Auria traveled to Great Neck, New York for another donation from Dr. Kahn. Included were four antiquarian books and a number of other significant items:
–A 1550 edition of Trithemius’ “Polygraphiae” (first published in 1518) – It’s the first printed book on cryptology. And if you look closely at the paper peeking from behind the cover, in the early days of printing, presses would use scraps of old manuscripts as filler material between the cover and the opening pages. Historians have discovered manuscripts that were thought to be lost—hidden within the covers of other books.
–Gaspar Schott Schola’s, “Steganographica,” 1680 edition (first published in 1665)
–John Wilkin’s, “Mercury or the Secret and Swift Messenger” published in 1694
—Bentley’s Complete Phrase Code Book from 1923
–An early DES encryption chip from 1978 encased in acrylic (at the time this chip was referred to as the world’s smallest computer)
–A WW I US Army Signal Corp pocket cipher disk encoder, patented in 1913
–A cipher wheel from one of American inventor Thomas Hebern’s early rotor-based cipher machines (circa 1918-1923)
–A pocket cipher disk encoder produced by the Swiss company Crypto AG
