Projects / James Hampton’s notebook
What if there is no ordinary plaintext?
An invented script beside a visionary work of art.
The question behind James Hampton’s notebook
James Hampton made this notebook alongside his religious artwork. The Smithsonian American Art Museum dates it to about 1945–1964 and describes its writing as invented or possibly asemic. Attempts to read it have not produced an accepted interpretation, but that does not establish that it hides ordinary plaintext. Any test must leave room for writing whose purpose was expressive rather than cryptographic.
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The next attempt
Approaches are being prepared.
A source review, eligibility review and testable question come before funding or execution.
Sources and eligibility
Funding closedBounty history has not been reviewed for funding here. Any project that has ever carried a paid bounty is excluded.
- Smithsonian: The Book of the 7 Dispensation
Museum object record 2013.90.3, checked 2026-10-25. Download availability is not a reuse licence for this artwork or its photograph; no page image or transcription is reproduced here.
- Smithsonian: Reading Into the Throne
Museum account of Hampton’s work and possible asemic writing, checked 2026-10-25. Its interpretations are presented as possibilities, not a proved decoding method.
- Klaus Schmeh: Top 50, no. 10
Historical list membership, checked through indexed page text 2026-10-25; direct retrieval returned 502. No affiliation or endorsement implied.