ABSTRACT
Even if we cast it as a ‘thirst for knowledge’, the historian’s search for new documents and artefacts from the past stems at least in part from curiosity, even nosiness; there is a desire for secret, perhaps salacious, information about people who lived long ago. In this quest, a heavy file bulging with letters perhaps represents a particularly good haul. Re-opening an envelope dried with time, inching out a crisp letter, and gazing down at a page of crabbed handwriting, the researcher feels she might be experiencing the same emotions felt by the first recipient, however many years ago. Addressed to a named reader (or readers), we feel we are breaking the ties of confidentiality and unlocking the mysteries of a past age. Letters seem to promise the personal, the familiar, the intimate: as such they represent a hugely exciting source for the historian.
