1From John Jay to James Jay, 4 January 1776 (Jay Papers)
Sir James Jay may have conducted a political correspondence in invisible ink that has not been found, as reported that Sir James may have first sent him some of his invisible ink as early as 1773 or 1774.
2Silas Deane to Robert Morris and the Committee of Secret Correspondence, 23 June 1776 (Franklin Papers)
at this point was apparently a communication in invisible ink, which is no longer decipherable; see Smith,
3From John Jay to Robert Morris, 15 September 1776 (Jay Papers)
). Addressed: “To Robert Morris Esqr a Member of the General Congress Philadelphia.” Endorsed. Enclosures: unidentified document explaining the use of invisible ink (not found); decipherment, not found, of an original letter in invisible ink from Deane to JJ. Morris was , despite his absence from Congress after May 1776, continued to receive and forward letters from Deane written in invisible ink.
4To John Jay from Robert Morris, 23 September 1776 (Jay Papers)
). Addressed: “To/John Jay Esqr.” Endorsed. Enclosure: portion of Silas Deane to Jay, 11–23 June 1776, incorporated in invisible ink within a letter ostensibly written by one M. Longueville to his brother in Philadelphia, addressed care of Robert Morris. For the background of the enclosure, see above,
5From John Jay to Robert Morris, 6 October 1776 (Jay Papers)
Decipherment of Text in Invisible Ink of Price Current and Continuation of Deane to Jay, for the Committee of Secret Correspondence, 11–23 June 1776.Deciphered from the invisible ink from the enclosure with the heading “From prices current.” Bendikson filled in some missing words from a transcript made by
6To John Jay from Silas Deane, 2 December 1776 (Jay Papers)
written in invisible ink and rendered visible by Bendikson through the use of ultraviolet light. The letter was hidden within , written under the pseudonym Thomas Johnson to an equally fictitious Thomas Smith and made available to Bendikson by Jay biographer Frank Monaghan in 1937. All but the words in brackets were rendered from the passage in invisible ink. The original
7To John Jay from Robert Morris, 4 February 1777 (Jay Papers)
...message was written in ordinary ink at the top of a sheet of paper while the apparently blank remainder of the page contained Deane’s letter to Morris of 17 Sept. 1776 written in invisible ink. In his letter to Morris, Deane advised that a shipment of clothing, powder, cannon, and ammunition would be sent from France in October; recommended that Congress give commissions to seize Portuguese...
8The American Commissioners to John Jay, 2 June 1777 (Franklin Papers)
below, June 8, and Jay’s comment here suggest that another and closely similar communication in invisible ink, now lost, followed six days later.
9To John Jay from the American Commissioners (Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane), 2 June 1777 (Jay Papers)
was no longer attending Congress, he continued to receive and forward correspondence, much of it originally in invisible ink, from Deane and Franklin to the Committee for Foreign Affairs, which had succeeded the Committee of Secret Correspondence.
10To Benjamin Franklin from the Chevalier de la Pleignière, 8 March 1778 (Franklin Papers)
On the 16th Pierre-Joseph-Hyacinthe, chevalier de Monts, writes from Vesoul in Franche-Comté. He encloses his secret method of making invisible ink; try it.