Female friends writing: then and now. A school pupil reflects on their work experience on the ‘Social Bodies’ project

Lulu writes: I was very lucky to get work experience at UoB’s History department in June 2023, and as part of my time with Professor Karen Harvey I spent a day transcribing and analysing 18th and 19th century letters. She’d chosen a variety of letters written by children and young people for me, such as … Continue reading “Female friends writing: then and now. A school pupil reflects on their work experience on the ‘Social Bodies’ project”

Travelling Letters, Travelling Bodies: Reflections from the Huntington Library

The project team have recently returned from two weeks researching at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. The Huntington contains several important collections of eighteenth-century British correspondence, many of which found their way across the Atlantic in the early twentieth century, with later waves of acquisitions arriving in more recent decades. Many of these … Continue reading “Travelling Letters, Travelling Bodies: Reflections from the Huntington Library”

The letter as embodiment of health

‘I think your eyes must be better’, Mary Bostock wrote to Mary Huddleston in May 1810, ‘for I am sure you write as well as ever’. [1]  Bostock understood the quality of Huddleston’s handwriting to be a direct indication of her correspondent’s health: she was aware of the subtle changes in how her relative formed … Continue reading “The letter as embodiment of health”

‘I am glad to write to you’: children’s letters in 18thC England

York City Archives, Gray GRF/4/3 J.16 In 1809, Jonathan Gray of Gray’s Inn in York signed off a letter to his wife, Mary with these words to his two year old son: ‘Father hopes William is a good boy, and minds his Book’.  This sentence is clearly printed in large block letters and is followed … Continue reading “‘I am glad to write to you’: children’s letters in 18thC England”

Picturing the Body: Body Parts in eighteenth-century Letters

All images have been reproduced with kind permission of © British Library Board The past few weeks have seen the reopening of archives and libraries across the country, and, happily for the project team, the opportunity to be reunited with the eighteenth-century letters at the heart of our research. But with archive slots in high … Continue reading “Picturing the Body: Body Parts in eighteenth-century Letters”