U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP)

This guide to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C. follows two ink sketches that landed on Franklin Roosevelt's desk in 1935, showing the reverse side of the Great Seal, and the theory his approval set loose about who really designed it. It traces the seal back to Charles Thomson and William Barton in 1782 and weighs the Masonic legend against what the record actually shows. Stand over the production floor and the guide points out a hidden creature engravers swear is hiding in the currency's fine lines, and the nineteenth-century machine responsible for it.