In Maine, a woman bought an 1880s Victorian silk dress, only to discover hidden pockets filled with mysterious papers, strange words, numbers and '10pm'

A vintage silk dress bought at an antique mall in Maine in 2013 turned out to be hiding an extraordinary piece of 19th-century history. Archaeologist and vintage clothing collector Sara Rivers Cofield discovered a concealed pocket beneath the bustle of the 1880s-era dress, containing several crumpled scraps of paper filled with unfamiliar words, numbers and time-like markings.

For years, the meaning of the mysterious notes remained unknown. Their strange combination of place names, words, numbers and markings prompted theories ranging from personal messages to gambling records and even secret communications. Eventually, researchers discovered that the papers were not mysterious messages at all, but coded weather observations dating back to 1888.

Woman bought 1880s Victorian silk dress, only to discover hidden pockets

Rivers Cofield bought the brown silk bustle dress because she was drawn to its elaborate construction and distinctive metal buttons. It was only after taking the garment home and examining it carefully that she noticed a concealed pocket sewn into the skirt.


Inside were several pieces of paper covered in what appeared to be coded writing. Some entries began with the names of locations and were followed by seemingly unrelated words. Numbers, coloured markings and notes including “10pm” and “1124 P” added to the mystery.

The papers appeared to have been deliberately written in a structured format, but there was no obvious explanation for what they represented.

Strange notes spark theories about the Victorian dress

The unusual papers attracted attention after Rivers Cofield shared details of her discovery online. Readers suggested a variety of explanations for the strange writing. Some wondered whether the papers could have been love letters, gambling records or even coded messages used by spies. However, the age of the dress offered an important clue.

The garment appeared to date from the 1880s, making some Civil War-era explanations unlikely. Researchers instead began looking at forms of communication that were commonly used during the late 19th century.

Telegraph code provides the key to the mystery

The breakthrough came from the possibility that the papers contained telegraphic code. In the 19th century, telegraph companies generally charged according to the number of words transmitted. This encouraged users to develop compact codes in which a single word could represent a much longer piece of information.

Weather services had a particularly practical reason for using such systems. Observers needed to send detailed weather readings from different locations, and transmitting every individual measurement could be costly.

Telegraphic weather codes allowed large amounts of information to be condensed into relatively short messages.

Researcher searches old telegraph codebooks

As per a TOI report, researcher and code enthusiast Wayne Chan took a closer look at the mysterious papers. His investigation involved searching through roughly 170 historical telegraphic codebooks. None initially appeared to provide the answer.

Chan eventually found references to weather codes used by the U.S. Army Signal Corps, giving researchers a promising new direction. With assistance from Katie Poser, a librarian at the NOAA Central Library, he obtained an 1892 weather codebook.

Although the book was not the exact codebook used to create the mysterious notes, it provided important evidence supporting the weather-code theory.

1880s dress mystery linked to coded weather observations

Further research eventually established that the papers contained coded weather observations from Signal Service stations across the United States and Canada.

What initially looked like a string of random words was actually a compact record of atmospheric conditions.

For example, an entry such as “Bismark, omit, leafage, buck, bank” represented different weather measurements, including temperature, pressure, dew point, precipitation and wind conditions.

By comparing the coded information with historical weather records and maps, researchers were able to identify the observations as dating from May 27, 1888.

Who owned the Victorian dress remains a mystery

Although researchers were able to determine what the papers contained, one major question remains unanswered: who wore the dress, and why were weather codes kept inside it?

A label sewn into the garment reads “Bennett”. Researchers investigated possible connections with people associated with the Army Signal Service in Washington, DC, including a clerk named Maitland Bennett.

However, no definitive evidence has established that Bennett was the person who owned or wore the dress.

The style of the garment offers another possible clue. Rather than looking like a dress intended primarily for formal occasions, it appears practical enough for everyday work.

Could a woman working at the Signal Service have owned it?

Women worked in clerical positions at Signal Service offices during the 1880s, raising the possibility that the dress belonged to someone connected to the organisation.

If that was the case, the mysterious papers may have been connected to her workplace or simply ended up in the pocket for an ordinary reason.

For now, however, this remains speculation. Researchers have not established a definitive connection between the dress's owner and the weather service.

Antique dress preserves a forgotten piece of weather history

The discovery offers an unusual glimpse into the development of weather forecasting and long-distance communication.

Before modern digital systems, telegraph networks allowed weather observations to be transmitted rapidly between distant locations. Coded messages made it possible to send large quantities of information efficiently, helping meteorologists build a broader picture of weather conditions.

The Victorian dress therefore preserves more than a fragment of everyday clothing history. Hidden inside its pocket was a small record of the technology and scientific practices that were helping shape modern weather forecasting.

A Victorian mystery hidden for more than a century

The most remarkable part of the story may be how long the papers remained undiscovered and misunderstood.

For more than a century, the coded observations survived inside a concealed pocket of a Victorian silk dress. What looked like meaningless words turned out to be a snapshot of weather conditions recorded on May 27, 1888.

The identity of the woman who carried those papers may never be known. But the discovery has transformed an antique dress into an unexpected time capsule, preserving a tiny piece of 19th-century meteorological history.


Note to readers: This article is based on a historical account published by NOAA on December 14, 2023. While researchers have decoded the papers as 1888 weather observations, the identity of the woman who owned the dress and the reason the papers were kept inside it remain unconfirmed.