It demonstrated an effort to make the most of scarce paper, and perhaps postage, by fitting as much information as possible on the letter in a very decorative manner. The crossed letter writing style was common in the 19th century. While our archival staff come across many types of paper, adhesives, and connectors among our documents, this style of writing is one we don’t often find. Today’s post features one such personal letter that is quite unusual among our holdings, not so much for what is written in it but because of the way in which it was written. The letter is written in a way referred to as a crossed letter, also known as cross-writing or cross-hatch style.

Those textual records include manuscripts, memorandums, official business letters, and even the occasional personal letter. Today’s post comes from Dorothy Dougherty, Programs Director at the National Archives at New York City.īy current estimate, the National Archives has over 5 million cubic feet of traditional records in its holdings.

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