National Cryptologic Museum, Annapolis MD

Talk about your hidden gems! This week we went to the National Cryptologic Museum which is the museum of the NSA (National Security Agency). Upon arrival, we were greeted by the volunteer at the front desk. She shared that all volunteers are former employees of the NSA. The museum doesn't look like much from the outside, but it was a big hit with my son and his friend!

The volunteer asked each of the boys if they wanted to try the Crypto Kids Challenge, which they both eagerly accepted. They were each given a clipboard and pencil, a Caesar Cypher Wheel, and a sheet with 15 blank spots to fill in. As we moved through the museum, each of the 15 challenges were marked by a cartoon figure. The sign would pose a question about some sort of code breaking topic, and then would have a code to set their cypher wheel to, in order to break the code and find the answer! This task alone helped the boys to forget that it was a museum, and make them feel like they were truly code breakers. When they completed the chart correctly, they were able to take the sheet back to the front desk for a prize!

In addition to this smart and interactive activity, the variety of code machines and stories about code breakers was incredibly informative and interesting. The machine that had the largest "wow factor" was definitely the Enigma machine, which was used in world war II Germany. They had paper and pencils out, with directions on how to set the machine and write/break different codes! Each boy put in their name, and typed the code that appeared as each letter was typed. We then reset it, typed in the code letters, and watched as their name lit up, letter by letter.




While the Enigma machine, and many other machines and gadgets were not surprising to learn about, we found the Hobo Communication exhibit to be particularly unexpected and fascinating. First we read about who hobo's are and how they traveled around the country looking for work. What we didn't know was that there were many towns where they were unwelcome when there wasn't work to be had. The hobo's had to create a code language of images that they carved all over different towns, letting other hobo's know if the town was friendly or not, if the people in certain houses were friendly, if their were dogs, etc! The exhibit is a model town, with a listing of symbols that they used on the side. Each symbol had a button to press, which lit up that area of the town. This was fun and educational.

In addition to the cool things listed above, they also had exhibits on technological advancements, the Vietnam War, Navajo Code Talkers, invisible ink coding, women in code breaking, and African American's role in code breaking.

This museum was small, but great, and allowed us to enjoy 2 hours worth of time in a great and educational venue. We also appreciated the phone tour that you could dial into at many of the exhibits. They provide you with a list of all the codes and the phone number at the front desk, and then as you walk through, you can call the phone number and type in the code and # key to hear about each part of the museum. We just hung up after each session, and then hit redial whenever there was another exhibit that we wanted to learn more about!

What great and free fun this was! However, if you get a chance to donate, they greatly appreciate it. They even have a sign-in sheet to show potential donors how many people come to this non-government funded museum. This is a great place for field trips!

Website: https;//www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/museum/ 

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