National Letter Writing Month: A Look Inside a Missionary's Letter Journal Collection

Left: Annie Sanford in 1895, Center: Letter from 1895, Right: Annie Sanford in 1908

April is National Letter Writing Month! Looking back to March, the library honored Lutheran Women missionaries in India at the turn of the 20th century in our entryway exhibit case for Women’s History Month. The exhibit contains a letter from the papers of Miss Annie. E. Sanford. Miss Sanford’s collection at the Seminary Archives is full of letter journals that describe her time in India and serves as a perfect example of the importance of letter writing.  

On her first trip to Guntur, India in 1895, she chronicled her travel experience in a letter to her family. On a boat crossing the Atlantic, Miss Sanford notes in a message to her family about letter writing during travel:

“We spent the afternoon on deck writing to the loved ones at home and learning by observation all we could about life at sea. We were told that at midnight the pilot would return to Philadelphia and carry our letters back- the last we could mail until we landed in Queenstown.”

Clearly, this deadline to write to her family one last time before losing the ability to write home was important to her and worth recording.

In a letter dated February 1896 Miss Sanford notes:

“I am just getting answers from my sea voyage and since I find everybody seems to be satisfied with a company letter I will write my second edition. In fact, everybody gets more news this way as each gets on long letter instead of a short one.”

Often spanning three or four months at a time, Miss Sanford continued to send her family long company letters during her entire missionary experience in India. She sent a total of 21 letter journals home during her first stay to her family recording her travels and experience in Guntur, India. These letters give remarkable insight into late 19^th century travel systems, life in India, and the missionary experience.

In her third letter to her family, Miss Sanford describes everyday life in India but warns that her letters are from her perspective and not to make assumptions:

“I will try to not give you the wrong ideas, but have I have seen so little yet in comparison with what it to be seen that my horizon is very small.”

Miss Sanford’s letters were her only means of communication with her family and as such, expresses the importance of letter writing in history. Preserving letters, like those in Miss Sanford’s collection, provides us with a window into the past offering insights into the cultural and societal norms of the time.

Miss Sanford spent over 40 years in India as Lutheran missionary. Her first trip began in October 1895 and lasted seven years until she returned to the United States for a 2-year furlough. 

To read more of Miss Sanford's letter journals, check out our digital collection by clicking here.

Written by Meriah Swope, Seminary Archives intern from Shippensburg University.