Relive the past with letters from historic figures

The art of letter writing has undoubtedly taken a hit since the advent of the internet. You’re more likely to get a text with abbreviations, misspellings and emojis than a well-crafted

message opining on the state of the republic or musing to a faraway love. It’s no surprise that progress would render putting quill to parchment obsolete. But we can still enjoy a blast from

the past courtesy of the Pony Express — or at least the U.S. Postal Service. Two letter delivery services that relish the turn of an artful phrase and seek to preserve American history are

resurrecting the practice of receiving good old-fashioned snail mail. Letterjoy.co and HistorybyMail.com offer subscription programs to send readers old-timey letters written by some of

America’s most well-known figures. The online companies have mined the offline archives to come up with carefully curated series. Topics vary but span the gamut of American history from the

founding of the United States to national security in the mid-20th century. The services rotate topics among issues, such as historic inventions, American wars and foreign diplomatic

relations. SUBSCRIBE HERE! You can sign up here to AARP Experience Counts, a free email newsletter published twice a month. History By Mail, a self-described “time machine allowing you to

step into the past and experience history in a whole new way,” has collected letters from authors such as George Washington, Emily Dickinson and Rosa Parks. Letterjoy’s collection includes

the likes of presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln as well as a variety of writers, including abolitionist Frederick Douglas, aviator Amelia Earhart and

convicted Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. History By Mail also sells prints, timelines, charts and even historic cartoons, while Letterjoy offers postscripts written by researchers

who provide background and facts about each letter. Both seek to enhance the recipient’s experience by creating careful reproductions of the originals, which History By Mail says are

designed to “mirror the look and feel of the original piece, down to the ink tone, paper color, and texture.” “The letters themselves are fascinating and wonderfully curated, and the

accompanying writeups are detailed and well-researched and written and provide excellent context,” Hal Bryan, a self-described “student of history,” said of his Letterjoy subscription, which

he received as a Christmas present in 2022. “I come away from each letter and article having learned a lot, and, in many cases, inspired to learn even more," he told _AARP Experience

Counts_.  Letterjoy was founded in 2017 by Michael Sitver while he was a political science major at the University of Chicago. Sitver said the idea dawned on him when he was studying state

and American institutions and political philosophy.