Rediscovered Trunk of 17th-Century Letters a Link to the Past

By Patrick Skahill

Rediscovered Trunk of 17th-Century Letters a Link to the Past

By Patrick Skahill
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A historian at Yale has been examining this treasure trove of undelivered letters, recently rediscovered in the Netherlands. (©Signed, Sealed & Undelivered team, 2015. Courtesy of the Museum Voor Communicatie, the Hague, the Netherlands)

Handwritten letters may be on their way to becoming a thing of the past, but they can be an important window into history, revealing much about the writer – and time and place.

That’s what a historian at Yale is discovering as she examines, what she calls, “a postal treasure trove” – letters from the late 17th-century that were recently discovered in a trunk in the Netherlands.

Reporter Patrick Skahill of Here & Now contributor WNPR has our story.