LEARNING FROM LETTERS
by Susan Chenelle
Some people
collect stamps from certain countries, stamps printed during a particular period
of time, or stamps with pictures on them of things that they like. I collected
stamps when I was younger—my favorites were Disney stamps from places like
Antigua, Barbados, or Grenada or stamps commemorating the history of space exploration.
While more recent stamps, like the ones I collected, often have never been used,
older ones usually have been "cancelled," meaning that a rubber stamp has been
imprinted on them, telling where and when the stamp was used to mail something.
Though stamps are often bought or traded by themselves, if a stamp has been cancelled,
that means it was, at one time, attached to a letter—and sometimes it still
is. While we can learn a lot about history from the stamps themselves, the letters
and postcards they are attached to have stories of their own.
Mr. Robert F. Welt, a social studies
teacher at Fitch Middle School in Groton, Connecticut, has introduced his students
to the historical mysteries of stamp and letter collecting through his Stamp
Club. During their "flex" period, students work on projects relating to stamps
or letters in Mr. Welt's collection. Many of the letters were exchanged between
members of the same family, and by reading and studying them very carefully
Mr. Welt's students have been able to learn a lot about the history of these
families, some of whom migrated west through the Ohio Western Reserve, and life
in the late 1700s, 1800s, and early 1900s.
Jamie, who is studying letters written by the Perry family, describes the
beginning of the process:
"When I first got the box full of letters, I had to put them in chronological
order. Then I wrote down basic information like the day and date of the letter,
and a summary about the letter on an analysis sheet. This is all put and kept
in a folder with plastic sheets to protect and organize the letters and information.
After doing all this, I go back through the letters and I try to find as many
family relationships as I can. I am listing them on paper for now, but after
I list them I will probably make a family tree to connect the relationships
together. This will also make it easier to read. Reading through these letters
and finding family relationships is a great way to learn about history!"
Because a person's handwriting is often very difficult to read, especially
handwriting styles from a long time ago, students also transcribe the letters.
Once they have learned as much information as possible from a letter itself,
the students then compare it with what they have learned from other letters.
This can be very confusing, because different letters sometimes contradict each
other. For example, one letter might indicate that John is Jane's husband, while
another might make it seem like John is Jane's son. Also, since there weren't
fixed spellings of words and names in previous centuries, people spelled them
by how they sounded and often shortened them by leaving out unnecessary vowels
or consonants. Sometimes it takes comparisons of several letters to sort things
out.
Mr. Welt's students often find more questions than answers after studying
these letters. When this happens, students have to go beyond the letters and
look for more information elsewhere. One of the important distinctions Mr. Welt
teaches his students is the difference between primary and secondary sources.
The primary sources, in this case, are the letters themselves. Secondary sources
are books or articles—such as a history book (or a Web site!) on the migration
of Connecticut Yankees—written about primary sources and the information
they contain.
Historical societies are great places to find both primary and secondary sources.
While researching letters of the Barrows/Corbin family, Amy has "written to
the Union Historical Society twice and gotten a reply both times." She says
that "the first time we received no new information, but the second time, we
found out from the president of the society that they had a record of Mrs. Corbin
in the society's building as being a member of the Union Grange.... I have learned
quite a bit more about U.S. history from using primary sources than I could
ever have from some hot shot history book."
This project not only connects students with people who lived many years ago,
but with other students. Groton is a military town, and students and their families
often move every three years, so the collections and research have been passed
on several times from student to student—many of these studies have been
going on for six or seven years. Mr. Welt has also been able to share these
projects with students from other schools through programs, like SummerFEST
and the Amistad Friendship Society, sponsored by LEARN,
an educational service center which coordinates learning partnerships between
schools in southeastern Connecticut.
One of the families Mr. Welt's students have studied extensively is the Woodbridge
family.
Want to start your own stamp and letter collection? Click here for some ideas
on how to get started. (Coming soon!)
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