The History of Codes and Ciphers in the United States Prior to World War I

The History of Codes and Ciphers in the United States Prior to World War I, edited by Wayne G. Barker, opens Aegean Park Press's multi-volume history of American cryptology, tracing the subject from its early roots up to the outbreak of the First World War.

According to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries' catalog record, the book corresponds to Volume 1 of "Historical Background of the Signal Security Agency." The Army Security Agency's Historical Section wrote that study in 1946; it was later declassified. Barker's companion volume, The History of Codes and Ciphers in the United States During World War I, continues it as Volume 2. A further volume in the series covers the interwar years, 1919-1929. This volume itself runs 159 pages, with facsimiles and illustrations of period cryptographic material.

Barker founded Aegean Park Press in 1973. He edited a substantial share of its Cryptographic Series, drawing on declassified US government material to document the history of American code-breaking through the Army Security Agency's own internal records.