library: his own personal papers and also the voluminous files of the Riverbank Department of Ciphers. In Fabyan’s last letter to William before he died, he had mentioned destroying “a lot of old correspondence on ciphers because I did not know whose hands it might fall into.” Now William wrote to his widow, Nelle. What was to be done with the files of the Department of Ciphers? These records were part of the Friedmans’ own history and America’s history too, and the Friedmans wanted to make sure they were preserved. The reply came that Fabyan, as one of his last wishes,
