Over the summer we ran Schools Out Events called ‘Symbols, Cyphers and Secrets’ on 29th July and 14th August 2019 for children aged between 8-11. The inspiration for the event came from a key to a cypher showing code names of prominent members of the Jacobite cause which is held at the Lochaber Archive Centre. (CL/B/3/102).
Our attendees discussed the purpose of symbols – whether it was for information, advertising or communication. They then created and designed their own shields and crests with things that they felt represented themselves. We discussed the cypher showing code names of prominent members of the Jacobite cause and asked them to decode a cypher that we had created using another document from the collections as inspiration. Using the technique we used to make the cypher they were able to write their own names in codes!
