Letterlocking – Unlocking History
Welcome to letterlocking! You can find essential information about letterlocking and the Unlocking History research team here.
Follow us on social media @letterlocking.
MIT Press
Publication date: March 4, 2025
What is Letterlocking?
Letterlocking refers to the technology of folding and securing a sheet of paper to function as its own envelope. See the full definition in the Dictionary of Letterlocking.
Documentary: What is Letterlocking? (2015)
A glimpse into a day of shooting instructional videos. Produced, directed, and edited by Vincent Thuet
Documentary: What is Letterlocking? (2019)
Jana Dambrogio and Daniel Starza Smith, co-inventors of the field of Letterlocking explain what is letterlocking. Filmed by Harvard University Derek Bok Center for Teaching & Learning
Resources
Our resources help identify distinctive letterlocking styles, categories, formats, manipulations, assign security scores, authentication enhancements. We explain the key differences between 64 categories – and our videos show you how to model locked letters. Click on the buttons to access:
Imaging: Virtually read a 300-year-old sealed letter!
Jacques Sennaques’ letter is one of 577 UNOPENED letters found in the Brienne Collection. Our team of 11 researchers worked together to read virtually the contents – the words and the folds – for the first time, without breaking its seal.
What does the letter say? Read transcriptions and translations into English here.
Conservation
The study of letterlocking is important for the preservation of documents because it informs us about the value of the evidence that the manipulations – the creases, slits, and holes – offer. Conservation resources coming soon. #PreserveTheFolds.
Working towards openness & accessibility
The Unlocking History research group is committed to promoting equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice. Letterlocking practices crossed the world over many hundreds of years, and letterlocking was used by people from an enormous range of backgrounds and cultures. We seek to tell a truly global story. In 2020, we established an internal fund to support research into equitable research and teaching practices, so that we can continue to build them into the heart of the project.
The Unlocking History research group values linguistic diversity. Please see our initiative to translate the Letterlocking definition.
UNESCO recognizes that the global preservation of languages works toward cultural tolerance and that “languages and multilingualism can advance inclusion.” We hope that by translating letterlocking terms we will help link historical and cultural traditions, advance inclusion, and connect with other individuals studying letterlocking but may refer to the practice by another name.
The Unlocking History team is developing a system to make our resources accessible. Please check back for updates.
The Team
Please consider making
a gift to letterlocking via the
Archive Collections Fund (2780500).
Page updates added: 26 July 2024