Department of English

Feature Story

Multispectral imaging unlocks a Smithsonian treasure's secrets

Associate Professor of English and textual scientist Gregory Heyworth and his students have been occupied in their multispectral imaging lab for weeks, working to recover the hidden text in a rare Armenian prayer book sent to them by the Smithsonian. 

The “over text”—the visible text—is of an Armenian prayer book, suspected to date from the 15th century. But there is also an “under text”—a work that was erased to recycle the parchment for the over text. Heyworth and his Lazarus Project team use different wavelengths of light to painstakingly photograph an object, revealing what the eye cannot see.