Letters of Note

I've discovered an fantastically awesome website: Letters of Note.

The blog's author posts scans of letters, faxes, notes, and memos from the desks of famous people, and transcribes them as so readers don't have to strain their eyes with old typescript.

There are letters from Presidents, from musicians (David Bowie!), and from celebrities. They are funny, interesting, and some are deeply moving.

One of my favorites is correspondence between a woman who fears her five sons perished on the USS Juneau in 1942, and President Roosevelt. This incident is what prompted the creation of the Sole Survivor Policy.

Reading these documents brings me back to the days of college and graduate school, researching in libraries and archives for primary documents. I got to leaf through pages of documents in the Library of Congress, and for a history nerd like me, that was pretty sweet.

It's a really neat site - enjoy!