The “Phonography” of Celestin Schwarz: A Quirky Cipher from Nineteenth-Century Cincinnati

On July 31, 1896, an unusual postal card arrived in Freiburg im Breisgau, then part of the Grand Duchy of Baden within the German Empire. It had been mailed from Cincinnati, Ohio on July 20th, addressed to the Anzeiger in Freiburg — that is, to the Freiburger Anzeiger, one of the local newspapers. Somehow this