Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter

Join us at the MIT Museum as we welcome scholars Jana Dambrogio and Daniel Starza Smith to discuss their new book, Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter. The presentation will be followed by a letterlocking making activity.

Before the invention of the gummed envelope in the 1830s, how did people secure their private letters? The answer is letterlocking—the ingenious process of securing a letter using a combination of folds, tucks, slits, or adhesives such as sealing wax, so that it becomes its own envelope. This almost entirely forgotten practice, used by historical figures ranging from Elizabeth I and her spies to Japanese samurai lords, was an everyday activity for centuries, across cultures, borders, and social classes. In Letterlocking, Jana Dambrogio and Daniel Starza Smith, experts who have pioneered the field over the last ten years, tell the fascinating story of letterlocking within epistolary history, drawing on real historical examples from all over the world.

Copies of Letterlocking will be available for purchase onsite from the MIT Press Bookstore.

June 13
6-8pm
$5

You may also like the following events from MIT Museum:

• This Saturday, 17th May, 02:00 pm, Teen Science Cafe: Beyond the Algorithm in Cambridge
• Next Tuesday, 20th May, 12:00 pm, Artist Talk: Jenny Brockmann in Conversation with Michael John Gorman in Cambridge
• This month, 31st May, 02:00 pm, Monsters of the Deep Gallery Talk in Cambridge

Also check out other Workshops in Cambridge, Arts events in Cambridge, Fine Arts events in Cambridge.