Age , decline in quality , and urine damage are just a few of the reason historians can be scant on info that was once promptly available on paper . Sometimes , it ’s simply a fount of lacking Sir Frederick Handley Page . Other time , researchers can see “ befuddled ” text right under their nose .
One example : a letter written by Alexander Hamilton to his future wife , Elizabeth Schuyler , on September 6 , 1780 . On the surface , it reckon very much like a ranting about a Revolutionary War clash in Camden , South Carolina . But Hamilton scholar were excited by the 14 lines of writing in the first paragraph that had been pass over out . If they could be read , they might unwrap some new dimension to one of the better - known Founding Fathers .
Using the practice ofmultispectral imaging — sometimes called hyperspectral imaging — conservationist at the Library of Congress were recently capable to shine a young twinkle on what someone had attempt to scrub out . In multispectral mental imagery , different wavelengths of Light Within are “ bounced ” off the paper to expose ( or hide ) different ink pigments . By examining a papers through these dissimilar wavelength , investigators can tune in to faded or obscured hand and make it visible to the nude eye .
The text let out a more emotional and romantic side to Hamilton , who had used the lines to woo Elizabeth . Technicians uncovered most of what he had written , with Good Book in bracket still obscured and inferred :
Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler wed on December 14 , 1780 . So why did Hamilton try and hide such romantic words during or after their suit ? He probably did n’t . Historians trust that his Word , John Church Hamilton , traverse them out before publishing the letter as a part of a book of his father ’s correspondence . He may have considered the passageway a little too sexy for mass consumption .
[ h / tLibrary of Congress ]
