Huge historical archive of mail from captured ships to go online

The Prize Papers, a hoard of 160,000 unopened letters seized during naval wars of 1652 to 1815, to be digitised

An extraordinary archive of thousands of undelivered personal letters from all over the world, seized from ships captured during Britain’s naval wars over three centuries, are to be digitised in a project offering an intimate glimpse into people’s lives.

The letters, found in mailbags, with many bearing wax seals and some still unopened, have so far yielded personal accounts, some heart-rending, journals, sheet music, drawings, poems and even a packet of 200-year-old seeds from South Africa.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2wNEpkG
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