Providence printmaker and sculptor Kenn Speiser is looking inside envelopes for unusual printed patterns, and hopes you will, too.

Safety envelopes, sometimes called security envelopes, are envelopes tinted -- printed -- inside in a variety of patterns to foil prying eyes. "Most of these patterns are found inside utility bills, bank statements and check window envelopes," Kenn says.

With support from the R.I. State Council on the Arts, he's well into the Tinted Safety Envelope Research Project, which hopes to document, investigate and preserve these designs. At that link you can see 16 "Envelope Families" he's assembled. A few of them appear here.

Kenn writes that he sees fewer patterns now, and wants to catalogue their variety "before it's too late."

Here's where you come in. If you have or find envelopes with different patterns, and are willing to mail him the actual envelope, here's how to contact him.

He'd like to widen the search. When I asked what this post might add to what's on the Safety Envelope site, he emailed,

Hopefully I'll be found by people in other countries and they will send me envelopes from around the world.

Here are some of the historical questions I would like to find answers for:

1- At what point in time did they first appear?

2- In what country were they first printed?

3- Who came up with the idea of printing on the inside of envelopes? Was it the printing industry first or was it driven by a need in the marketplace?

4- Were the original designs printed specifically for envelopes or did they originate from another source and then converted into envelopes?

4A- If they originated as envelopes, what problem did printing on envelopes solve, and what was the previous solution, if any?

5- What industry, business or profession was the first to use these envelopes?

6- Who designed them in the beginning?

7- Who designs them today?

8- What inspired the different designs, then and now?

9- Has the development of printing technology affected the design of Safety Envelope patterns?

10- Do the different patterns have specific names?

At least one source has volunteered some background information. You can read, on the project's site, a 2005 letter, presumably replying to a query, from Maynard H. Benjamin, President and CEO of the Envelope Manufacturers Association and author of The History of Envelopes 1840 - 1900. It includes this historical note,

The earliest example I have of an inside security tint is an envelope used at the White House during Woodrow Wilson's administration. The inside tint was used to insure that no one read the contents of the letter and Wilson used window envelopes at the time to save on readdressing time given the quantity of correspondence his administration produced.

If you have old records and correspondence tucked away, check 'em out. They may be safely enclosed in rare envelope art.