Letterlocking: Sirius Black’s locked triangle letter to Harry Potter, England (1994) (UH0156)

Modelled after the letter in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Model found in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries (MIT), Unlocking History Research Group archive, MC 0760. When Sirius wanted to set up a meeting with Harry, he sent this locked letter to Hogwarts. The corners of the square substrate were all folded to meet at the center; this new square was then folded in half to create a triangle format letterpacket. String was then tied around the letterpacket and held in place with warm sealing wax. The string could either be cut off or the bow could be untied to open the letter. Sirius used a form of information security by sending the letter to Harry using an anonymous owl instead of Hedwig – because she was too recognizable. The steps to form this letterpacket are similar to ones that Queen Elizabeth I or her letterlocker used in a letter from 1583, except that she pierced her letter with the string instead of just tying it around the packet. Be on the lookout for this video coming soon as well as other locked letters from the world of Harry Potter. Produced by MIT Video Production. Directed by Jana Dambrogio. Researched and demonstrated by Emily Hishta Cohen. Funded by the Seaver Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries in support of our project, “Unlocking History.” Thanks to J.K. Rowling for her creative use of letterlocking in the world of Harry Potter. Special thanks to MIT Video Production staff, Ayako Letizia, Mary Uthuppuru, Brien Beidler, and Daniel Starza Smith. Citation information: Authors: Emily Hishta Cohen, Jana Dambrogio, and the Unlocking History Research Group. Title: "Letterlocking: Sirius Black’s locked triangle letter to Harry Potter, England (1994),” Letterlocking Instructional Videos. Unlocking History number 0156/Letterlocking Unique Video number: 156. Date filmed: November 2017. Duration: 4:15. Date posted: November 2017. Video URL: [Use URL below]. Date accessed: [Date]. Copyright 2017–present. Jana Dambrogio, the Unlocking History Research Group, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). All rights reserved. The following copyrighted material is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.... Contact the MIT Technology Licensing Office for any other licensing inquiries. To find out more about letterlocking, visit http://letterlocking.org and follow us on social media @letterlocking. YouTube URL: http://bit.ly/hptriangleformat or    • Letterlocking: Sirius Black’s locked trian...