Students in the History Department founded this club with the help of Professor John Spencer Bassett in 1926. The purpose of the club was to collect a diverse group of letters, not necessarily valuable, that documented the lives of women and men throughout history. Members of the club accumulated the material in the collection over several years from various sources and donors. See Folder 1a "General Information" for more details on the club and its purpose.

The Old Letters Club records, consisting of 5 linear inches, are a small collection of letters written between 1776 and 1871, with the bulk of the collection composed in the mid-eighteenth century. Extremely diverse with many of the letters written around the Revolutionary and Civil wars by both women and men, the letters collected by the club are not only of a personal nature, but encompass business and legal affairs as well. According to the club's purpose, many of the letters provide insight into the daily lives of people at different points in history; however, none of the series of letters are complete, some of the authors cannot be identified, and none of the signatures are well-known. The collection is not arranged chronologically; instead, the club's original method of arrangement by donor and then accession is maintained. As many of the letters were given on loan to the original club, there is a gap in the middle of the collection where thirteen letters are missing as well as another gap towards the end of the collection where an additional thirty-three letters are unaccounted for. Included in the files are both the club's original index cards documenting the letters and the index cards created by an archivist while processing the collection. Some of the information differs between the cards and the file folders because of new dates and names discovered upon a closer reading of the letters. Every letter has a corresponding index card except for letter # 147.

Note: This collection is part of 80. Student Clubs and Organizations

The collection is not arranged chronologically; instead, the club's original method of arrangement by donor and then accession is maintained.

Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:

Old Letters Club (Smith College) Records, Box #, Smith College Archives.

Processed by Noelle Giguere.