National Cryptologic Museum — Attraction in Odenton

An interesting place if you have always wanted to know more about codes and codebreaking up to around the 1950s or so. When coding became more computer driven, it became both more difficult to decrypt and less interesting to show in a museum -- after all, a computer that prepares your electric bill looks about the same as a computer designed to crack codes (except in scale and speed and cost, of course).

That having been said, there are lots of fun things to see and do at this tiny museum. It is housed in a small building located outside of the fences at the National Security Agency. If it reminds you of a 1950s roadside motel, no surprise. I'm told it was where visitors to the NSA were housed in prior years.

The movie "The Imitation Game" (2014) tells the story of the British efforts at Bletchley Park and the role that the mathematician Alan Turing played in breaking the German Enigma machine -- it's fun to play with an actual Enigma machine that is out and available to use yourself. It is also fun to see the enormous contribution that the American industrial enterprises (National Cash Register Company, IBM, etc.) made to the war effort and beyond in cryptography -- and to balance that against the totally unbreakable (by the Japanese) Navajo Code Talkers, low tech but high security.

Nice little gift shop; docents can help the deeply interested to access the materials available in the non-classified parts of the NSA archives and library. This museum is rarely crowded (although at times a school group can increase the noise nevel and difficulty of having your turn at the hands-on exhibits) - well worth a few hours for those who want to know what was going on in the cryptology world a few decades ago.

For more recent information, I guess you have to read the newspaper, Google Edward Snowden, read David Kahn's book ("The Codebreakers"), and be prepared for math problems well beyond college...

What an amazing piece of national importance and relevance. Can walk through the corridors of history and historic decision making that has had far reaching consequences on world order, here. Some of the stories narrated here brings-in the goose bumps and also the towring buildings of the NSA next door tells you the all-tell story of how the work and continued contribution of so many nameless people continue to protect us all!

The place has some rare pieces that are a delight for anyone interested in the origins and the way cryptology has evolved over centuries and more interestingly how different continent approached it differently. Sometimes, it takes getting under someone’s skin to understand how they would solve a logic.

There are several free books available for pick-up that could be a keepsake for anyone interested in the theory as well as specifics off stories. A whole bunch of cryptology problems to create and slove for all ages too! This place definitely needs to be on your list.

Pssssttt….volunteers helping you around and showing you the place could be a top notch ex-NSA staffer / agent and obviously what they’ve done in their lives remain...

The National Cryptologic Museum (NCM) is free and open to the public, you can get free books and pamphlets from the publication room, and there are various exhibits, some of which come and go throughout the year. For example, there was a teddy bear with a built-in camera in the room with decommissioned telecommunications and space equipment, and there was a tablet about 30 feet away that allowed me to see from the perspective of the camera. In other words, what I saw on the tablet was what the camera saw. There are multiple people who give tours and are very educated on the exhibits at the NCM. Additionally, there is the Magic Room where presentations are given on various topics. Lastly, there is a gift shop packed with all kinds of things to buy, like the secret sauce and spice, pens, fidget spinners, hoodies, hats, golf balls, books, coffee cups, magnets, etc. Much of the things have the National Security Agency logo on them for what I like to call swag purposes, so they are not cheap, but aren't expensive, depending on what...