Letters

The Profound Loneliness of Greta Garbo

Sotheby’s is auctioning off a collection of letters that reveal Garbo’s deep dissatisfaction with her life in Hollywood

Message From the Past Found Inside Spanish Statue of Jesus

A local chaplain wanted people from the future to know what crops his region grew, what games they played and what diseases they suffered

Lee receiving the Medal of Freedom in 2007

Unpublished Harper Lee Letters Purchased at Auction Share Intimate Reflections

The letters from the <i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i> scribe include remembrances of Hollywood celebrities, a bit of history and some sass

Einstein's Maxims on Life Fetch $1.8 Million at Auction

The notes were given as a tip to a Tokyo bellboy in 1922

Nine letters written by Barack Obama from 1982 to 1984 are being made available to the public for the first time

Barack Obama's Letters From Three Decades Ago

As a striving college student and recent graduate, letters by the future president depict a man coming to terms with his identity and future

Newly found letters by Alan Turing

New Letters Show Alan Turing Wasn't a Fan of the U.S.A.

The groundbreaking mathematician and computer scientist who spent 2 years at Princeton wrote that he 'detests America' in newly found documents

Alexander served as the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and was a prominent Founding Father before his untimely death.

Get Your Hamilton Fix With This New Trove of Digitized Documents

The Library of Congress has uploaded 12,000 items relating to the 'ten-dollar Founding Father without a father'

The dead letter office circa 1922. The contents of unresolvable dead letters and packages are periodically sold off by the USPS.

A Brief History of American Dead Letter Offices

The United States postal system was established on this day in 1775, and mail started going "dead" very soon after

A later copy of the Bixby Letter

Was This Famous Lincoln Letter Written by His Secretary?

After a century of rumors, textual analysis suggests the Bixby letter sent to a grieving mother was penned by John Hay

The Queen of Crime

Agatha Christie’s Fiery Letters Offer New Glimpse Into the Queen of Crime

The author was not a fan of pink or Pekingese dogs

“I am now a member of the 95th Aero Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group,” Quentin Roosevelt proudly announced to his mother on June 25, 1918. “I’m on the front—cheers, oh cheers—and I’m very happy.”

World War I Letters Show Theodore Roosevelt's Unbearable Grief After the Death of his Son

A rich trove of letters in the new book “My Fellow Soldiers” tells the stories of generals, doughboys, doctors and nurses, and those on the home front

Abigail and John Adams's letters to each other show a rare marriage of equals, historians say.

The Letters of Abigail and John Adams Show Their Mutual Respect

We still have 1,160 of their letters, written across the years of their marriage

Because donkeys definitely belong on Valentine's Day cards.

Nothing Says ‘I Hate You’ Like a ‘Vinegar Valentine’

For at least a century, Valentine’s Day was used as an excuse to send mean, insulting cards

Benjamin Franklin's portrait on the 2009 design of the hundred dollar bill.

Benjamin Franklin Was a Middle-Aged Widow Named Silence Dogood (And a Few Other Women)

The founding father wrote letters in the voice of female pseudonyms throughout his life

A brittle letter addressed to Orrin W. Shephard of Croton, Newagyo Co., Michigan from his son Nelson.

Mystery Solved: A Michigan Woman Says She Mailed Civil War Letters to the Post Office

Smithsonian curator Nancy Pope learns how and why these letters showed up in the mail 153 years later

"America is lost!" wrote George III.

Now We’ll Finally Get to See the American Revolution Through the Eyes of King George

A treasure trove of nearly 350,000 documents, about to be released to the public, reveals new insights about how George III lost the colonies

When Was the First Map Produced and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Re-enactor John Holman displays a newly discovered letter alongside period objects including a hardtack-crate desk.

Newly Discovered Letters Bring New Insight Into the Life of a Civil War Soldier

A mysterious package holds long-lost correspondence from a young Union infantryman

Did John Adams Out Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings?

A scholar makes the intriguing case that Adams gossiped about the relationship years before the news erupted in public

Robert Motherwell writing at his desk in Amagansett, New York, June 1944

These Letters Written by Famous Artists Reveal the Lost Intimacy of Putting Pen to Paper

Many of the letters included in a new book provide snapshots of especially poignant moments in the lives of American artists

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