Cryptography History

The written history of classical cryptology goes back about 3,000 years (see Kahn’s The Codebreakers). Our selection deals with American Cryptography from 1710 onwards. The material is non-technical.

History of US Cryptography
Pre-1941
Cryptologies Role in the Early Development of Computer Capacities in the United States
It wan’t all magic: the early struggle to automate cryptanalysis
Masked dispatches: cryptograms and cryptology in American history
Pearl Harbor revisited: United States Navy communications intelligence
Revolutionary secrets: cryptology in the American Revolusion
The American Black Chamber
The SIGABA/ECM II Cipher Machine
SIS and Cipher Machines: 1930-1940
The Voynich Manuscript – an Elegant Enigma
1941-1945
A priceless advantage: U.S. Navy communications intelligence and the battles of Coral Sea, Midway and the Aleutians
Eavesdropping on hell: intelligence and the Holocaust
Cryptologic aspects of German intelligence activities in south America during World War II
Annotated Bibliography of Cryptography in Australia in WW2
Cryptology and the Winds Message Controversy
German cipher machines during World War II
Machine Attack on JN-25
The Invisible Cryptologists
Sharing the burden: women in cryptology during World War II
Silent warriors: the Naval Security Group
Solving the enigma: history of the cryptanalytic bombe
The 1941 US Codebreaking Mission to Bletchley Park
The Secret History of the Female Code Breakers Who Helped Defeat the Nazis
ULTRA and the Army Air Forces in World War II
The VENONA story
Post-1945
The creation of U.S. security organizations
The quest for cryptologic centralization and the establishment of NSA
History of the Signals Security Agency
Cold War
Tale of the Tape
Korean War
The Korean War: The SIGINT Background
Vietnam War
Cryptographic Branch of the People’s Army of Viet-Name
Purple Dragon: The Origin and Development of US OPSEC
Space Surveillance SIGINT Program
The Interregnum
Crypto Museum
History of Codes and Ciphers
History of Classical Ciphers
Learning from the enemy: the GUNMAN project
Cryptologic excellence: yerterday, today, and tomorrow
Biographies & etc.
The neglected giant: Agnes May Driscoll
The Friedman Legacy
Release of the William and Elizabeth Friedman Collection
The Friedman collection: an Analytical Guide
W. F. Friedman Biography
Brigadier John Tiltman: a giant among cryptanalysis