Can You Solve the 'Silk Dress Cryptogram' Mystery?

In an unforeseen journey into history, a silk dress became an unexpected gateway offering insights into weather forecasting practices on the North American frontiers in the 1800s.

A ‘Silk Dress cryptogram’ that had baffled cryptanalysts worldwide for nearly a decade has finally been deciphered by a computer research analyst in Manitoba, Canada but mysterious strands of the story still puzzle researchers. 

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Wayne Chan, a University of Manitoba computer analyst, was determined to break the cryptogram consisting of 23 lines of words found on two sheets of crinkled paper hidden in an 1880s Victorian-era dress purchased in Maine in 2013. The note held references to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and other North American cities.

The dress was bought by archeologist Sara Rivers Cofield at an antique mall in Maine who admired the dress’s beautiful metal buttons and elaborate bustle. At home, she found a secret pocket hidden under the bustle, inside the seams of the skirt. Upon further inspection, she also found crumpled bits of paper inside the secret pocket and posted a message on her blog asking for help.

The intrigue soon began with a few enigmatic phrases:

‍Bismark, omit, leafage, buck, bank
Calgary, Cuba, unguard, confute, duck, fagan
Spring, wilderness, lining, one, reading, novice.

Deciphering history‍

Speculation over the years has ranged from connections to the American Civil War to mere dress-making instructions. The true meaning remained elusive until Chan's breakthrough. His findings were published in the cryptology journal Cryptologia, shedding light on a mystery that had earned a spot on the World's Top 50 Unsolved Encrypted Messages list on the Cipherbrain cryptology blog.

Chan delved into 170 code books. A crucial breakthrough came when he identified similarities between the cryptogram's structure and weather messages from the late 1800s, leading him to the archives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, D.C.
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Historic Codes & Ciphers

Cross-referencing with the 1892 US Signals Service Weather Code, Chan decoded the cryptogram's message as a weather observation from May 27, 1888, in Bismarck, North Dakota. The Silk Dress cryptogram was a relic of a bygone era when telegraph codes facilitated rapid long-distance communication, with each word in the lines representing specific locations or observable conditions.

The message included observations from various weather stations, including Winnipeg, Calgary, Alberta, and Thunder Bay, Ontario, revealing details about a cool spring day in 1888. Despite the apparent clarity in cracking the code, the identity of the dress's owner and the reason for concealing the seemingly innocuous message for over a century remains elusive, however.

Chan speculates that the woman who owned the dress might have worked for the Signals Service office in Washington. The dress bears a label reading ‘Bennett’, yet no record of a Bennett at the Signals Service during that period has been found. Undeterred, Chan - who has been breaking codes since he was a child - remains dedicated to unraveling the identity of its owner, ensuring this captivating glimpse into the past receives the attention it deserves.

“I remember having like a kids’ book about code breaking when I was in elementary school, and that's probably how it came about,” he told the Canadian media. “Of course, back then I couldn't convince any of my friends to get interested in the same thing as I was.”

Can you solve the code?