Wartime Letters Going to a New Home, Part 2

I'm nearly finished curating my family history materials and finding safe new homes for artifacts that don't have a close, direct connection to my family. This is Part 2 of the saga of letters and cards written by a family in England to my family in the Bronx, New York, during World War II. (Part 1 is here.)

Last year, I decided the correspondence should either go to descendants of the letter-writers in England or be offered to a museum. Part 1 tells the story up to the point that the English family's descendants had been found by the Imperial War Museum in England, which was considering whether to accept the letters for study and archiving.

All descendants agree, now what?

My family and the letter-writers' descendants agreed whole-heartedly that the letters should go to the museum. We were excited at the prospect of the handwritten notes being professionally preserved and made available to researchers and possibly museum visitors.

Before the museum's management could make a decision about accepting the letters for their collection, they had one more question: What value would I put on the correspondence?

Valuing personal correspondence

Because the museum would be importing the letters from the United States to the United Kingdom, the value of the items must be declared.

I've had no experience with valuing items, so I looked at similar correspondence on eBay. Single letters from that period ranged in price from $10 to $50 or more--for a multi-page handwritten letter, sometimes with, sometimes without an envelope.

But as the museum pointed out to me, we know the background of both the letter-writers and the recipients, which adds to the value of the correspondence. Plus the letters themselves are in very, very good condition! 

Therefore, I suggested to the museum that we value the set of letters at $400.

Did the museum accept the letters?

Yes! The curator is happy, the families are happy. Just think: My ancestors and their ancestors will be in the collection and database of the American Air Museum at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. We all couldn't be prouder.

Now the museum is making arrangements for express shipping these letters from New England to England. By the time you read this, I will have signed all the documentation and arranged for getting the letters to their new home across the pond.

What about your ancestors?

What I did with these letters is the equivalent of contacting the prestigious Smithsonian here in the United States--a really big stretch. Fifteen years ago when I began looking for new homes for family-history artifacts, I actually did email the Smithsonian about two items. I got no reply, for good reason: those artifacts were not truly rare enough to belong in the Smithsonian. I never made that rookie mistake again.

Back then, I didn't yet know how to analyze the artifact, research possible repositories, and match the artifact to the most appropriate one. I quickly learned how repositories manage their acquisition of donated materials and was able to adapt and format my offers accordingly. I have now placed literally hundreds of artifacts in the collections of dozens of repositories across the United States (most physically, some digitally). 

No dumpster, no recycling bin, no flea market, but safe places for items ranging from theater programs and old photographs to a leather war bond wallet and various historic newspapers.

In this particular case, the Imperial War Museum was actually the most appropriate match for the wartime correspondence from England. I aimed high and made a strong case, resulting in the letters being accepted by the museum. A happy ending indeed. 

PS: When I began curating my collection, it took a few non-responses and refusals to teach me how to successfully donate a family-history artifact to a repository. Be patient if you decide to donate something, and if you get a "no," ask where else you might try to donate. For more, see my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

Wartime Letters Going to a New Home, Part 1

Early this year, I wrote about wanting to donate a series of letters written to my grandparents and my mother by a family in England. 

The correspondence began when a widow walking her dog met my aunt Dorothy, a WAC serving in England during World War II. They struck up a conversation and this lovely widow began writing to Dorothy's parents (my grandparents) and to Dorothy's twin sister (my Mom). 

Keep or find a new home outside the family?

Because the letters have no particular ancestral significance, I saw an opportunity to curate my holdings by finding the letters a safe new home outside the family. Sis agreed with my plan to let the letters go. Always check with your family first!

Here's the process I followed (and you might follow) for finding a good new home for items that aren't absolutely vital to the family's history. Part 1 of 2.

Process for finding artifacts a new home

With my sister's agreement, I attempted to find any living descendants of the letter writers by looking at online family trees. My goal was to tell them the story of the correspondence, express my family's appreciation for their ancestors' kindness, and offer them the letters. (Note: there's more to this story in Part 2, no help needed now!)

I had no response from the owners of two online family trees with that family. Next, I found a more distant cousin with an online tree and contacted him. After months of trying to reach out to closer cousins, he got no response either.

We agreed it was best if these wartime letters go to an institution, to be preserved for the future. And we both had the same thought about an appropriate repository.

Match the artifact to the repository

To find the right repository, I first classified the letters: 

• World War II period descriptions of the home front in England
• Original letters and cards, including envelopes with stamps and postmarks
• Written in England on thin wartime stationery
• Mailed to individuals in America
• Evidence of examination by wartime censors (see image above)
• Written after meeting my aunt, a WAC serving in England
• Ongoing contact from 1943-1945

The perfect place for these letters, we believed, was the Imperial War Museum in England. It is dedicated to documenting the "human experience of war and conflict and the impact it has had on people’s lives." The letters from England were a contemporary window into the everyday life of a family close to military bases where UK and US servicepeople were training or stationed in World War II. 

The correspondence revealed how this family coped with wartime shortages, detailed who was joining the military, who was at school, and how they felt about the war. These folks opened their home to my aunt the WAC and their hearts to my aunt's family.

What will the repository accept?

I checked the Imperial War Museum's guidelines about offering to donate an item. After noting their collecting priorities, I wrote an email to explain the letters and their significance in light of the museum's mission. I provided a bit of background about the letters being provoked by a meeting with my aunt the WAC, serving alongside the 9th Air Force in England (and later France and Belgium). All institutions want to know provenance, so this was part of my explanation.

I had already scanned all the letters and envelopes, and had ready a summary of the dates and who's who of the writers and the recipients. To support my request to donate artifacts, I attached a scan of one of the letters--including a tiny head shot of the letter writer! I hoped to attract the attention of the curator with this sample of handwritten letters from the heart. 

Helping shape a proposal

After nearly a month, I was delighted to hear from the curator of the American Air Museum, a part of the Imperial War Museum. She was interested in the family letters and especially intrigued that my aunt was the historian of her WAC detachment connected with US Air Force (the focus of this division of the Imperial War Museum). 

She quickly created an entry for my aunt on their museum website, drawing on a bite-sized bio I wrote for my aunt on Find a Grave. And after checking my aunt's history of the WAC unit, she began adding other WACs to the museum's database.

Next, the curator asked me for additional background to help her write a proposal that the museum's directors would read as they considered whether to accept the letters. I submitted a contextual summary of the letter writers' family situation, the recipients' family situation, my aunt's WAC career. Also I said I had no more letters beyond 1945, so it appeared unlikely that the connection continued after my aunt finally returned from Europe to her parents' Bronx apartment.

One more bit of due diligence

The museum's directors met and determined that before they made a decision about the letters, they wanted one more bit of due diligence: to check for any other descendants in England. They were able to locate two living descendants that I was not aware of--and those descendants quickly agreed that the letters written by their ancestors should most definitely have a new home in the museum.

Thanks to the museum, the descendants and I are now in touch with each other. We've shared more about the later lives of the correspondents. We are all excited that after 80-plus years, our families are connected again through the letters written during World War II.

To be continued: Did the museum say "yes" to accepting the letters for their collection? What happens next?

More in Part 2, here!

PS: I learned how to donate artifacts by trial and error. If I can do it, so can you!