MYSTERIOUS NOTE FOUND IN 1888 SILK DRESS FINALLY RESOLVED
Sara Rivers Cofield didn't anticipate discovering a mystery when she purchased a beautiful 19th-century garment in 2014. The curator and archaeologist bought what appeared to be a typical 1888 bronze silk bustle garment in very good shape. But after being able to examine the intricate clothing, she discovered that it was accompanied by an enigmatic message, the meaning of which would not be revealed for almost a decade.
On her blog, Cofield first expressed her joy at the acquisition. There, she discussed the dress's distinctive qualities, including the fact that it still had its original buttons and a handwritten name tag that said "Bennett" stitched into the bodice lining. But when Cofield discovered that the dress had a hidden pocket, the situation became more intriguing. "Normally built-in pockets don't play hard-to-get, but it took a while to get to the thing, even with my mom, who is my constant antiquing partner," she writes.
"This pocket entrance is totally hidden by the overskirt, so you have to lift up the draped silk, reveal the cotton underskirt, and essentially ruin the entire ensemble to reach the pocket, rather than being conveniently accessible through a subtle slit in the overskirt." In addition, Cofield understood that the pockets could only be reached without causing damage to the garment when it was unworn because of their placement and design.
Remarkably, two translucent sheets of paper with scribbled notes on them were still inside this hidden pocket when Cofield arrived. The jottings themselves, however, were initially uninspiring; the majority of the lines had odd phrases such as “Bismark Omit leafage buck bank/ Paul Ramify loamy event false new event” in addition to numerical and colour notations. Cofield concluded that it was a telegraph code after considerable investigation and help, but data analyst Wayne S. Chan would not decipher the secret message for years. The weather bureau and army utilised the strange language in telegraph dispatches to explain weather observations in Canada and the United States.
Chan's investigation even allowed him to pinpoint May 27, 1888, as the day of the covert communication. "'Bismark Omit leafage buck bank' stated the reading was taken at Bismarck station, in the Dakota Territory," is how one of the lines was translated and published in The New York Times. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has stated that the actual value may have been higher, but the "omit" was for an air temperature of 56 degrees and a pressure of 0.08 inches of mercury. "Leafage" for a 32-degree dew point, measured at 10 p.m. "Buck," with a northerly wind and clear skies devoid of precipitation. "Bank," a 12-mile-per-hour wind, and a brilliant sunset.