JUNE 2021

Online hub for research and teaching brings digital humanities to the fore
MIT News
Virtual collaboration sessions connect faculty and researchers to new tools, resources, and each other.

 

 

The clever folds that kept letters secret
BBC
Hundreds of years ago, people developed ingenious methods to secure their letters from prying eyes – and they did it with only paper, adhesive and folds.

 

MAY 2021

Deter Prying Eyes by Locking Your Own Letters
Atlas Obscura
A how-to for those who want to use folds, tucks, slits, and more to turn letters into little works of art.

 

 

Scene at MIT: Setting up camp under the Dome
MIT News
Despite construction and a pandemic, MIT Distinctive Collections staff continue their work.

 

 

Cracking the Code of Letterlocking
Atlas Obscura
A tale of Black Chambers, lost correspondence, and high technology.

 

 

APRIL 2021

Talking Outside the Tower
MIT News
EECS Communication Lab teams up with MIT Libraries to broadcast free “Science Snippets” to the world.

 

 

3 Questions: Defining the Institute’s values
MIT News
Daniel Hastings and Tracy Gabridge share their experiences as co-chairs of MIT’s Values Statement Committee.

 

 

Algorithm Virtually Unfolds a Historical Letter without Unsealing It
Scientific American
In the centuries before envelopes, “letterlocking” secured a message’s information

 

 

MARCH 2021

Big Deal for Open Access
Inside Higher Ed
University of California system secures a landmark open-access deal with publisher Elsevier. Some university librarians hail the agreement as a breakthrough, but others worry about possible long-term impacts.

 

Research team led by Jana Dambrogio reads an unopened letter from early modern Europe using computational tools.

• Researchers virtually open and read sealed historic letters, MIT News
• New Technique Reveals Centuries of Secrets in Locked Letters, New York Times
• Rare ‘locked’ letter sealed 300 years ago is finally opened virtually, CNN
• Sleuths Read Old Booby-Trapped Letters Without Opening Them, Wired
• A Letter Sealed for Centuries Has Been Read—Without Even Opening It, Wall Street Journal
• Reading A Letter That’s Been Sealed For More Than 300 Years — Without Opening It, NPR
• Researchers read sealed 17th-century letter without opening it, The Guardian
• Algorithm reveals contents of fragile letters sealed for 300 years, New Scientist