Sources and methods: contingency and its role in researching records of cryptologic history - a discussion and some lessons to apply for future research

Abstract

Elusive as contingent discoveries of cryptologic records might appear to researchers, it is not a phenomenon hostage to “pure luck”. These two essays – on the discovery of diplomatic translations relating to the Nazi Gold controversy and the uncovering of hitherto “lost” records of the career and contributions to early American cryptology by Parker Hitt – illustrate how contingent finds are more a product of research techniques and a dogged attitude on the part of the individual.