Old Letters and New History

For a good part of my life, I had a tin cracker box filled with old letters. Most of these were letters sent to me by old boyfriends, away at college or otherwise separated from me and declaring their affections. There were also some letters from friends off on a big adventure somewhere and I found them so well written, the details of their experiences so juicy that I chose to save them. There were a few letters from one of my parents who acknowledged me for something that I had done or shared their pride and love for me in such a way that I knew I’d want to re-savor them at a later date. The box, and the letters they contained were a comfort to me at times when I was stressed or nostalgic and I loved to pull them out occasionally, sit on my bed, reading and remembering.

Old letters have been the background context for so many personal histories and biographies. A stack of letters found in attic floorboards tell intimate stories of a long lost relative. Archived letters from former presidents, military strategists or explorers provide detailed insights into many historical events that perhaps would have only been dates on a calendar or vague remembrances without these precious details. Penned at a time when the nuance of the written language was everything, old letters convey mood, emotion and relationship in a way that allow us to construct a very well detailed picture of what was going on at the time. Combined with old photos and personal accounts, they form the basis of what we personal historians, oral historians and biographers do when we create a memoir.