Following the Patterns

On Friday, Dr. Beiler sent me a snapshot of an interesting letter she found in the archives. It appears to be a letter with a coded letter attached. I have been fully immersed in decoding this letter ever since.

Decoding letters can be really intense. It requires following patterns seen throughout the letter and understanding patterns in language. Currently I'm working without a cipher which is tricky. I was hoping in a week I would have more than a potential E to share but so far no luck. What is particularly lucky is that attached to the coded message is another message. I am working on transcribing the letter so I can see if there is a clue inside the letter than will lead me to cracking the code. My transcribing skills are still novice at best so it's been slow going. Another interesting fact about this letter is that the uncoded part has several lines crossed out. As I continue to transcribe the letter I will give more details into the content. I'm currently working my way through the Salutation but since my brain has been programmed to read Jane Yardley's handwriting I have found it hard to adapt to a new penmanship.

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During my breaks while decoding this letter I have been fully invested in reading about Jane Yardley. I find myself loving the difference in how she writes to her sister than how she writes to her brother. Not only is the penmanship more formal but the writing style is as well. I don't have access to a lot of Jane's coorespondance but I would love to see if she continues this more informal writing with other women. Is it possible that when women write to each other there is a difference in style and structure than when a woman writes to a man? If so, why?

As I begin looking at the other female writers this week my plan is to keep that question in mind. How are the structures of letters different when looking at the recipients? I am especially interested to see this between family members. Does this formal format indicate a hierarchical structure within families?

As I look for this in the newly transcribed letters am looking back at the early letter writers in Britain to see the same. I hadn't asked this before and most of the letters I was analyzing were between women and this opens up a whole new world.

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After my transcription meeting on Friday I will have more answers about this coded letter and I will begin start comparing and contrasting letter from the early letter writers. I did find out I can share photos so this will allow me to show you all more clearly exactly what I'm working on. So next blog will begin walking through the transcription differences.

Stay tuned... until then...

Who would be interested in me adding history and letter writing trivia throughout my blog? Let me know in the comments!