Historical Correspondence in Order

• AI has been used for help with writing code, doing research for annotations, and for help with understanding certain texts but has not been used for processing the messages. Information found using AI has been checked via other sources.
• While I have tried to avoid errors, the correspondence in this collection has been edited, including the removal of footnotes and some annotations, to try to reflect how they were originally sent, and re-formatted with additional annotations, and may contain mistakes, discrepancies or different interpretations than the original sources, or omissions, making it advisable to refer to the original texts for use in scholarship, journalism, etc. When viewing a letter, clicking the citation button (a quotation mark within a speech bubble) will open the digital text source on gutenberg.org which includes the bibliographical information needed to find a physical copy or digital scan. Some messages in some sources may not have been included due to lack of clarity concerning dates, being short extracts that are difficult to understand without more context, requiring research to include, etc.
• The original sources may contain errors. While I’ve fixed them when I’ve noticed them the sources haven’t been systematically reviewed.
• As the possible scope of this project is vast, I have limited the scope of this edition to messages occurring before December 31st, 1914 (corresponding to the start of WWI, the end of “The Long Nineteenth Century,” and what could be considered just beyond the edge of living memory) from a selection of 250 sources that are in mostly-modern (and hence mostly searchable) English, available as digital text on gutenberg.org, easily determined to be in the public domain worldwide based on all contributors having been deceased before 1952, and which would not require extensive research for inclusion. As such, this app should not be considered a comprehensive nor complete view of world history nor as a complete collection of the correspondence of any person included.
• Correspondence may contain offensive language, including racial slurs and stereotypes, some letters may include descriptions of sexual activity or violence, and the collection includes correspondence by people who held offensive views. The only sources I have specifically left out are those which might be fictional, such as “Indiscreet Letters From Peking,” the letters of Robert E. Lee published by his son which presents an incomplete portrayal (as discussed in this Salon article by Glenn W. Lafantasie,) and a book on British history that referred to British people as a race. Some annotations have been added to sources known to have been edited, but may not have been added in all cases.
• Search queries are truncated to the amount of full words that fit in 250 characters and currently search for exact words or phrases enclosed in quotes and cannot currently match alternative, abbreviated, contracted, unusually formatted, or archaic forms of words, related words or concepts, or dates formatted other than the way they are presented in the text. Some annotations have been added in parentheses to the to, from, location, etc. fields to make them more searchable, but may not have been added in all possible cases. Wildcard searches can be used to find multiple terms (i.e. “California*” for “California” or “Californian”) but other advanced search functionality is not supported.
• While I have allowed for some leeway, correspondence is generally limited to letters, telegrams, memorials, petitions, and orders between two people or between defined groups. Reports that aren’t addressed to a defined recipient, memorandums, decrees, edicts, farmans, general protests, proclamations, circulars, testimonials, messages that knowingly never reached their recipient, etc. are generally not included, and I have generally left out messages written to the author of the book for the purpose of writing the book.
• Messages with full dates are sorted by the date (most letters do not have the time of day so when it is available it is not used for sorting.) Messages with missing days and months appear at the end of the month and end of the year and are sorted by the name of the source and then by the order the message appears in the source. Letters without days that appear at the ends of the months or years may be out of order when reading a specific person.
• Locations are only given when specifically noted in the source.
• As these messages are compiled from sources published in the early 20th century or earlier they may diverge from current editions and translations.
• Italic, bold, and superscript formatting has been removed from all to, from, location, etc. fields.
• Footnotes have generally been removed, though in some cases I have added notes about dates, location, etc. included in the source or from Wikipedia to add context when applicable/possible, and occasionally I have edited names, locations, etc. in the metadata to make it easier to search. As I have not been able to do so in all cases searches may not always show all possible results and the person's title or relationship to the sender might not always be apparent without the context of the letter text or doing further research outside the application. While I have tried to ensure accuracy please consult other sources for use in scholarship, journalism, etc.
• Endorsements and other text not written by the sender have generally been omitted.
• Dates in non-Gregorian calendars are placed before the Gregorian date when they are included in the source. Julian dates have only been reconciled when they are noted in the source as being O.S. (for Old Style) or with double-dating (i.e. January 1st, 1696/7.) As this my not have been denoted in all sources it is possible that letters by writers in the UK written between 1582 (when Continental Europe adopted the Gregorian Calendar) and 1752 (when it was adopted by the UK) may be not be positioned correctly.
• Images/illustrations have been removed and been replaced by descriptions, i.e. “[Musical Score]” where possible, or text-drawings if they were included in the digital text file.
• Pieces of correspondence are noted as extracts when it's noted in the original source or when I was able to infer it from context and hence may not always be correct.

• As I have already done work for possible future versions, I am currently not accepting submissions nor suggestions and am not interested in crowdsourcing, etc.
• I may make versions for other platforms in the future but currently don't have a public timeline for doing so.

As the collection is based on sources released in the early 20th century and earlier, some titles of sources may include dated language or terms. Some sources might be the source of as few as one message while others may be the source of 500 or more.

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