On this page:
“We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last destroy them out of discretion, and so disappears the most beautiful, the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverably for ourselves and for others”
Personal Correspondence
Research Themes Supported
Hull History Centre holds significant collections of personal correspondence. Such records can aid research into:
- Current Affairs
- Political Events
- Leisure Time
- Familial Relations
- Travel
- Everyday Life
- Political Constituency Business
- Operation of Businesses, Societies, Charities and Organisations
- Female Literacy and Interests
- Operation of Estates
- Weather and Climate
Typical Record Formats
Personal correspondence can survive in a number of formats, including: manuscript letters; typescript letters; postcards; emails; telegrams.
The following are common categories of information which feature in this record type:
- Full or partial postal address of sender
- Address of recipient, if envelope survives
- Business related updates and requests
- Personal news and opinions
- Comments re subjects of interest to correspondents
- Comments on current affairs and events of note
List of collections
The following PDF contains a list of collections with significant personal correspondence held at HHC.
- Source Guide Personal Correspondence List of collections containing personal correspondence at HHC
Additional supporting material
The following secondary literature provides contextual background and useful further information when trying to understand and use this record type:
- James Daybell, The Material Letter in Early Modern England: Manuscript Letters and the Culture and Practices of Letter-Writing 1512-1635 (2012)
- Maire Cross, Caroline Bland, Gender and Politics in the Age of Letter-Writing, 1750-2000 (2019)
- David Prochaska, Jordana Mendelson, Postcards: Ephemeral Histories of Modernity (2010)
