The Letter

Preserved in a vault at the National Library of Australia, lies a two-centuries-old letter. The message took 200 days to travel from a son in Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land, to his mother in Thurso, Scotland. Delve into the remarkable journey the letter took over the next two hundred years, venture down unexpected detours, and discover the amazing contrast between communications then and now.

/

/

Linkedin

National Library of Australia handover

  • The Handover

    It’s a sunny Canberra November afternoon in 2016. Claire Henson has flown in from Normandy France to handover a letter to the National Library of Australia.  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-30/historic-hobart-letter-donated-to-national-library/8075750 http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-life/national-library-gratefully-receives-van-diemens-land-letter-posted-in-1824-20161129-gszr1h.html http://www.theage.com.au/act-news/canberra-life/national-library-gratefully-receives-van-diemens-land-letter-posted-in-1824-20161129-gszr1h.html http://www.smh.com.au/act-news/canberra-life/national-library-gratefully-receives-van-diemens-land-letter-posted-in-1824-20161129-gszr1h.html Best, Sally The Canberra Times article by Ian Warden was also posted to the Melbourne Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. The handover was on…

  • A Faithful Servant

    For sixty two years Barbara Charleson was servant to the Logie family in Orkney

  • In memoriam

    Why does a thrice married, twice widowed Australian grandma publish an In Memoriam notice for a husband 34 years after his death? Why does she wait so long before publicly expressed her grief? And why was the notice featured in two New Zealand newspapers, The Kumara Times and the West Coast Times, and appeared on…