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In the course of my research in recent years on American intelligence history, I've become quite interested in classification markings and caveats, their variety both in textual content and font. 
A semiotician and an intelligence historian walk into a bar...
Certain fonts are definitely redolent of their times.
Former NSA official to me, telling me about this declassification: "You've heard of GAMMA? This was DELTA."
Double Plus what???
Mistakes were made.
The "SECRET" dates to 1918, I believe. It looks kind of art nouveau to me, but I'm no expert.
Last one for now. This from WWI.
Don't show this to the enemy!
Not sure why this couldn't have been printed on the document, perhaps it was an oversight that somebody had to rectify with the trusty stamp.
At least historians get to control something. A lot of CIA documents have caveats in italics and classifications in regular block letters.
This thread is useless but boy, am I entertaining myself. #Iamageek
A variant where you could fill in the blank.
I like how the slightly pinkish ink bleeds and expands.
WWII HUMINT report from the War Department. "For general use." Whatevs.
My guy Grombach, when working for CIA sent them a whole series of "Dirty Linen" reports, the early ones of which were printed on white paper with a blue stripe at the bottom.
The claim always is that CIA compartment names are meant to be meaningless, but I always wondered if OXCART--makes you think of something plodding, right?--wasn't somehow meant to be a bit of misdirection.
Last one for the nonce. State Department's Roger Channel in that teletypey font. Allegedly named after INR chief Roger Hilsman.
There was a time when CIA liked to put dashes between letters in some classification markings. It was never clear to me why.
I imagine those hollow fonts were meant at the time to give a sense of modernity.
PROPIN! Hadn't thought of that one for awhile.
I always thought "HVCCO" had a certain ring to it.
Meant to follow that with this. Can't take me anywhere!
@MarkSpringer helpfully reminded me of EFTO. Here it is in a very odd combination of caveats from a State Department cable.
Another one I put in a stupid place.
And another. *sigh*
Last of these out of placers.
This sounds like the title of a pulp novel, but it's really a VENONA document. VENONA wasn't always "VENONA."
EFTO means "encrypted for transmission only," by the way.
This pixelated SECRET was on the FBI's history of its SIS. It seems to have been added later to every page.
To me that has a late 70s-early 80s feel to it. Back when dot matrix printers were really cool.
I always like it when classification markings are in red. Also this looks like a nice font but it is sadly, rather blotted out.
And that one seems just slightly to be italicized, though perhaps that's a distortion in the image?
This is from CIA's 1953 "Petticoat Panel" report, as it happens. Just a typewriter.
ONI, Naval Attache report, 1926.
Cool font and I'm kind of digging the purple.
Blue over at the War Department, 1927.
This font somehow reminds me of Jurassic Park. CIA, 1957.
More from VENONA. I like the part about lock and key.
From something just obtained through FOIA.
Really funky font on the "TOP SECRET." Check out that "R." And then a different font for CREAM.
November, 1963.
April, 1963. Not the same.
Typed codewords and two different stamps. This is from an NRO history of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory.
I don't really work on NRO history at all, I'm just poking around but a couple cool things here. First, note the (S) before "National Reconnaissance Office" on its letterhead. The agency's very existence was classified then. ...
Second, I've never seen codewords stacked up like that. But, again, NRO is beyond my ken, really. Maybe that was common there?
This is the very hush-hush vessel from which Saruman drinks.
OK. I know the spelling isn't quite right, but the thought amuses me. In fact, this was atrociously silly, but still it amuses me.
OK. I know the spelling isn't quite right, but the thought amuses me. In fact, this was atrociously silly, but still it amuses me.
AEF G-2, 1918 on the cover of a pamphlet entitled "Two Lectures on Intelligence."
1919, handwritten, War Department.
War Department, 1917.
Up until now, this intermittent thread has included only American markings. However, in the legitimate course of my research, I had occasion to look at the MI5 files of an American of interest to me. I found some fun markings there, so the next several will be British.
MI5, 1954. On a report from a source.
MI5.
Very artsy elongated font. MI5 file, 1955.
MI5, 1956.
MI5, 1957.
Maybe they lost the rubber stamp this day in 1957?
I believe LASCAR referred to MI5’s audio surveillance of the Communist Party of Great Britain’s HQs. 1958.
Not a caveat or classification marking but, I mean, how do you expect me to resist? And a great blocky font. MI5, probably early 1960s.
And for heaven's sake, economize! That's all I've got for the nonce.
