The National Cryptologic Museum (NCM) is an American museum of cryptologic history that is affiliated with the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

(NSA). The first public museum in the U.S. Intelligence Community, NCM is located in the former Colony Seven Motel, just two blocks from the NSA headquarters at

Fort George G. Meade Fort George G. Meade is a United States Army installation located in Maryland, that includes the Defense Information School, the Defense Media Activity, the United States military bands#Army Field Band, United States Army Field Band, and the head ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

. The motel was purchased, creating a buffer zone between the high security main buildings of the NSA and an adjacent highway. The museum opened to the public on December 16, 1993, and now hosts about 50,000 visitors annually from all over the world. The NCM is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am-4pm (hours are extended Wednesdays to 7pm). It is closed on Sundays, Mondays. and all

federal holidays Federal holidays in the United States are the eleven calendar dates that are designated by the U.S. government as holidays. On U.S. federal holidays, non-essential federal government offices are closed and federal government employees are paid f ...

, and operates on NSA's emergency/weather closure schedule (i.e. if NSA is closed, the museum is closed as well). The NCM includes a gift store whose operational hours coordinate with the museum's operational schedule (i.e., if the museum is closed altogether, opens late, or closes early, the gift shop does likewise) and an unclassified library with weekday-only operating hours that also represent the museum's weekday operational schedule. The library includes over a dozen boxes of the files of

Herbert Yardley Herbert Osborn Yardley (April 13, 1889 – August 7, 1958) was an American cryptologist. He founded and led the cryptographic organization the Black Chamber. Under Yardley, the cryptanalysts of The American Black Chamber broke Japanese diplomat ...

, declassified Enigma messages, technical reports, and books including how to crack the

Data Encryption Standard The Data Encryption Standard (DES ) is a symmetric-key algorithm for the encryption of digital data. Although its short key length of 56 bits makes it too insecure for modern applications, it has been highly influential in the advancement of cry ...

using Deep Crack. The

National Vigilance Park The United States National Vigilance Park (NVP) was a memorial to the military servicemen who participated in aerial reconnaissance during the Cold War. Dedicated on September 2, 1997, NVP was located just one block from the National Security Age ...

(NVP) was next to the museum, where three

reconnaissance aircraft A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including collection of imagery intelligence (including using photography), signals intelligence, as ...

were displayed. A

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

Beechcraft RU-8D Seminole reconnaissance plane represents the Army Airborne

Signals Intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...

contribution in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. A

Lockheed C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally desig ...

transport, modified to look like a reconnaissance-configured C-130A, memorialized a

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

aircraft shot down over Soviet

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''O ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

. Finally, the park also contained a

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

Douglas EA-3B Skywarrior, commemorating a mission in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

on January 25, 1987, in which all seven crew members died. The NCM is open to the public, and admission is free. Donations to the NCM Foundation are accepted. Photography is allowed inside the museum but flash photography is prohibited in the museum due to the age of some of the artifacts. The museum temporarily closed in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Later in 2020, new museum director Vince Houghton used the opportunity to have the museum renovated. It reopened on October 8, 2022.

Collections

The NCM collection contains thousands of artifacts, including numerous working

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

German Enigma machines (two of them are available for visitors to try out), and a Navy Bombe used to break it. Displays discuss the history of American

cryptology Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...

and the

people A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

machines A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecul ...

, techniques, and locations concerned. Initially housing NSA artifacts for viewing by employees, the museum quickly developed into a collection of U.S. cryptologic history, with some artifacts dating back to pre-

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

times. In addition to exhibits covering equipment used to encrypt, decrypt, and secure information, the museum features exhibits on the people who contributed to cryptography in America, such as

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

(who integrated military intelligence tactics, including coded messaging, into the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War), the Native American

code talker A code talker was a person employed by the military during wartime to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication. The term is now usually associated with United States service members during the world wars who used their k ...

s (who protected U.S. communications during both World Wars by using their native languages to encode message traffic), and the Navy WAVES (who, like the WRENS of the British Royal Navy, operated the

Bombe The bombe () was an electro-mechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma-machine-encrypted secret messages during World War II. The US Navy and US Army later produced their own machines to the same functi ...

to decrypt German military traffic during WWII). Collections are divided into four major groupings: * Early Cryptology, which deals with cryptologic history prior to the formation of

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collec ...

, with exhibits dating back to the 16th century (the Renaissance-era book ''Polygraphiae'') forward to the early 1950s, focusing on artifacts from the

Founding Fathers of the United States The Founding Fathers of the United States, known simply as the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the war for independence from Great Britai ...

, the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

Code talker A code talker was a person employed by the military during wartime to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication. The term is now usually associated with United States service members during the world wars who used their k ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, and World War II. * Cold War/Information Age, which deals with

and

cryptanalysis Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic s ...

on both sides of the

, the early years of NSA, and the rise of the modern age of computers, including the development of

supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructio ...

s * Information Assurance, which deals with the rise of

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

technology, secure voice communications,

tamper-evident Tamper-evident describes a device or process that makes unauthorized access to the protected object easily detected. Seals, markings, or other techniques may be tamper indicating. Tampering Tampering involves the deliberate altering or adultera ...

technologies, nuclear command and control, and cyberdefense. * Memorial Hall, one side of which features the NSA Hall of Honor, and the other side of which features exhibits honoring those who lost their lives in cryptologic missions represented by the aircraft at NVP as well as others who lost their lives in cryptologic service to America ( USS ''Pueblo'', USS ''Liberty'', and a replica of NSA's National Cryptologic Memorial) In addition, there are galleries throughout NCM focusing on the roles of women and African-Americans in cryptologic history, and the variety of languages in use throughout the world. The NCM includes an unclassified library of books, papers, and other materials relating to the history of cryptography and cryptology as well. The library is open on days when the museum is open. The library is non-circulating (that is, material cannot be borrowed or checked out by the public), but photocopying and photography are allowed. Patrons needing extensive or rare materials for research are encouraged to contact the museum to schedule an appointment with the librarian. The size of NCM's library nearly doubled with the donation of an extensive collection of papers, books, and other artifacts related to codes and ciphers from cryptologic historian and author David Kahn. The donation was formally dedicated by the NCM during a recognition ceremony for Dr. Kahn on October 26, 2010.

Activities

The museum offers tours for members of the public, both scheduled and walk-in, that describe cryptology's impact on history and jobs in the field. Tours are led by docents who are retired NSA employees. Groups of six persons or more are requested to contact the museum in advance to schedule tours and ensure docent availability. In addition, the NCM offers educational field trips, tours, talks, and interactive programs for students aged from 9, as well as programs for

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts may refer to: * Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement. * Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement. * An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are t ...

and Girl Scouts of all ages to satisfy various pins, requirements, and electives. Interested educators, scoutmasters, and troop leaders are encouraged to contact the museum for more details. The NCM was the site of the 2010 activation ceremony for Marine Corps Forces, Cyberspace Command. The ceremony was attended by former CMC General

Alfred M. Gray, Jr. Alfred Mason Gray Jr. (born June 22, 1928) is a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general who served as the 29th Commandant of the Marine Corps from 1 July 1987 until his retirement on 30 June 1991 after 41 years of service. Early li ...

NSA Hall of Honor

The NSA Hall of Honor is a memorial honoring individuals with distinguished service to American

. Created in 1999, the standards are high for induction; honored individuals were innovators over their entire careers, whose expertise in various NSA subject matters far surpassed any of their peers, or who made major contributions to the structure and processes of American cryptology.Photo gallery of NSA Hall of Honor

Photo gallery

File:Kriegsmarine_Enigma.png, Four-rotor

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

Enigma machine File:US-bombe.jpg,

US Navy Bombe The bombe () was an electro-mechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma-machine-encrypted secret messages during World War II. The US Navy and US Army later produced their own machines to the same functi ...

used to decrypt the German Enigma machine File:STU-I.jpg, STU-I secure telephone desk set (electronics were housed in a separate cabinet) File:Ky-3.jpg, KY-3 secure telephone system File:Navajo-I.jpg,

Navajo I The Navajo I is a secure telephone built into a briefcase that was developed by the U.S. National Security Agency. According to information on display in 2002 at the NSA's National Cryptologic Museum, 110 units were built in the 1980s for use b ...

secure telephone File:STU-II.jpg, STU-II secure telephone desk set (electronics were housed in a separate cabinet) File:STU-IIcabinet.a.jpg, STU-II electronic equipment cabinet File:STU-IIIphones.nsa.jpg,

STU-III STU-III (Secure Telephone Unit - third generation) is a family of secure telephones introduced in 1987 by the NSA for use by the United States government, its contractors, and its allies. STU-III desk units look much like typical office telephone ...

secure telephone desk set File:Cray YMP M90 Ziegler 3.jpg, Cray Y-MP Ziegler

Supercomputer (1993)

References

Notes

* Jack E. Ingram, "Ensuring the Legacy: The Story of the National Cryptologic Museum"
''Studies in Intelligence'', 47(3), 2003
* Jack E. Ingram, "The National Cryptologic Museum: The First Ten Years – A Personal Story", ''Intelligencer'' 14(1) (Winter/Spring 2004), pp. 101–10. * Louis Kruh, "A Pictorial Tour of the National Cryptologic Museum", 18(4), October 1994, pp. 381–89.

External links

National Cryptologic Museum

The National Cryptologic Museum Foundation

Rosetta Stone Replicas
provider of the Rosetta Stone replica at NCM

A set of photos of the museum
by Austin Mills
A set of photos of NCM and NVP
by Mike Newton

By Rick Unland
C-SPAN American History TV tour of the National Cryptologic Museum
{{Authority control Cryptography organizations National Security Agency Telecommunications museums in the United States Science museums in Maryland Museums in Anne Arundel County, Maryland Military and war museums in Maryland Museums established in 1993 1993 establishments in Maryland Espionage museums