One Person’s Obsessive Archive of Postal Activity
More than a century ago, an Ohio woman began meticulously logging every piece of mail she sent and received.
Exactly 101 years ago today — April 21st, 1925 — a woman who lived in or around the town of New Lexington, Ohio, received three pieces of mail. One was a card from a woman named Merle; she also received a letter from Mary W. and another letter from Marjorie W.
That same day, the New Lexington woman — let’s call her Lexi — mailed a letter to Clare McD. The following day, April 22nd, she sent a letter to Kim. The day after that, April 23rd, she sent a letter to Mary Wilson and also sent a letter and some flower seeds to Marjorie (presumably the same “Mary W.” and “Marjorie W.” from whom she’d received letters two days earlier) .
We know all this because Lexi kept a logbook, running almost 200 pages long, in which she meticulously recorded every piece of mail she received and sent from the start of 1917 through August of 1926, creating a nearly decade-long archival record of her postal activity. A quick flip-through video of the book is shown above, and here’s the two-page spread that shows the letters I just mentioned:
As you can see, the pages are headed “Received” on the left and “I sent” on the right. The numbered arrows correspond to the following entries:
“A card from Merle Apr. 21”
“A letter from Mary W. Apr. 21”
“A letter from Marjorie W. Apr. 21”
“A letter to Clare McD Apr 21”
“A letter to Kim Apr. 22”
“A letter to Mary Wilson Apr. 23”
“A letter and flower seeds to Marjorie Apr 23”
It’s one of the most brilliantly obsessive artifacts I’ve ever encountered. Lots of people save letters, but maintaining a record of your letters really takes things to the next level. I mean, I’ve written before about how I love mail, but Lexi must have really loved mail.