The Unlocking History Team
Unlocking History is the name for our group of conservators, paleographers, literary scholars, historians, publishers, book-artists, imaging experts, engineers, and scientists who are interested in the historical practice of letterlocking. We want to make sure letters are conserved properly so that they can be studied for the verifiable secrets they reveal. The material features of letters can speak to us about the past, but in order to hear them we have to learn their language.
Jana Dambrogio
Thomas F. Peterson (1957) Conservator, Wunsch Conservation Laboratory, MIT Libraries. Director, General Editor of Letterlocking.org and Dictionary of Letterlocking (DoLL), and the Co-author of Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter.
Contributors
Dr Daniel Starza Smith
Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature (1500-1700), Department of English, King's College London, UK. General Editor of the Dictionary of Letterlocking (DoLL), and the and the Co-author of Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter.
Algorithm Engineer Lead, California
Algorithm Engineer, MIT Class of 2022. NASA Ames Research Center, Coded Structures Lab
Prof. Erik Demaine
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT
Martin Demaine
Angelika and Barton Weller Artist-in-Residence in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Technical Instructor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Glass Lab, MIT
Dr Graham Davis
Queen Mary, University of London, Institute of Dentistry
Dr David Mills
Queen Mary, University of London, Institute of Dentistry
Jennifer Pellecchia
COPY EDITOR. Massachusetts
Teresa Leone.
Copy editor of the Dictionary of Letterlocking. Ohio
Laura Bergemann
Graduate Student, New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, New York
Sheree Watson, MD.
Copy editor. and Researcher, New York
Prof. Neil Gershenfeld
Director, The Center for Bits and Atoms
Dr. Athanasios Velios
Reader in Documentation, University of the Arts London
Senior Lecturer & Associate Director, Department of Material Science and Engineering, MIT
Collaborators
Dr Nadine Akkerman
Professor in early modern English Literature, Leiden University
Dr David Verwaal-van der Linden
Assistant Professor in Early Modern History at University of Groningen
Dr Ruben Verwaal-van der Linden
Curator, Erasmus University Medical Centre
Associate Professor, Department of Media and Cultural Studies, Utrecht University
Chef, Owner, Chief of Pugs. Massachusetts
Carla Shroer, Cultural Heritage Imaging
Founder and Director. California
Alumni
Dorian Aguilar Copy Editor. California
Yasmeen Alfaqeeh. Leed Illustrator and Designer. California
Lead Illustrator and Designer, California
Dennis Flynn
Editor
Kate Scott
MIT Class of 2018. Department of Material Science and Engineering, MIT
Emily Montford
King's college, London, UK
Rufeida alhatimy
2020 King’s Undergraduate research fellow (KURF), King’s College London, UK
Ayako Letizia
2016–2020 Rare Book and Manuscript Conservator, Team member and Research Assistant.
Jordi Rocha
2020–2021 Social Media Outreach Lead and Research Assistant, Finland
BookBinder. Team member and Research Assistant 2016–2018.
Artist, SpringLeaf Press. Team member and Research Assistant 2016–2018.
Camille Dekeyser
Rare Book and Manuscript Conservator. England
Web designer, 2016–2018. MIT Class of 2017. Department of Material Science and Engineering, MIT. Massachusetts
Tomas Brown
2018 King's Undergraduate Research Fellow (KURF), King's College London, UK
simon Kim
2018 Wunsch Conservation Lab Student Worker, MIT
Caitlin Jenkins
2017 King's Undergraduate Research Fellow (KURF), King's College London, UK
Michael Christiansen, PH.D
Graduate Student, 2017, Department of Material Science and Engineering, MIT
Lucy Brown
2014–2018 Wunsch Conservation Lab Student Worker, MIT
Udit Mahalingam
2021 King's Undergraduate Research Fellow (KURF), King's College London, UK
Zimin Cheng
2017 King's Undergraduate Research Fellow (KURF), King's College London, UK
Millie Sidebottom
2021 King's Undergraduate Research Fellow (KURF), King's College London, UK
Kate Cherian Stephen Skuce, and Vincent Thuet.
Our team of letterlockers
Our Partners
Early Modern Letters Online (EMLO)
Cultures of Knowledge, a collaboration between the Bodleian Library and the Humanities Division of the University of Oxford. EMLO is the first online platform to adopt our letterlocking format and category assignments for letters found in the Brienne Collection catalogue.