Stamp collectors collect a thing we refer to as stampless covers.  These are
letters that predated postage stamps and received a postmark (either rubber
stamped or handwritten) and were marked paid by the postmaster.  In lieu of a
stamp the postmaster would show the amount of the postage in ink in the upper
right corner of the face of the cover (envelope).

But it's the content that interests me now.  My question concerns these
letters as source material.  Each letter tells a small story.  Together
grouped by place and time there could be a huge story to be told.  Dates of
events, people's where abouts on certain dates, description of events.  I am
reading 100 of these letters now with all sorts of random historical
references.   One Civil War soldiers letter refers to sending up a hot air
balloon and then holding it down so they would fly over enemy lines.

Is there a standardized method of summarizing the contents of such letters.
 Placed on the Internet I think the sum total of thousands of these letters
may to some small degree rewrite our history.   Many have never been read by
a historian, only stamp collectors who obviously don't understand the
historical significance of the contents.  Of course, most of it is boring
mush.   But who is to say other then the historical researcher what's
important.

One of my letters is from a young man going up the Hudson to Williams
College, Williamstown, Mass.  At Albany some of the other students took the
Hussie way to get to Williamstown.  What is the Hussie way?  He took three
days and walked to Williamstown, Mass.

He stated his fare up the Hudson was "$1.50 with broth."  It's great stuff.
These letters are from two families from the same place so reading them is
like reading a novel with each letter an installment in the story.  They run
from the late 1830s into the Civil War.

My question is two fold.  Is there a standard system of summarization and
what are your thoughts on access to this type of material by historians.  As
for summarization you would not want to wade through an entire letter as
originally written.  Life is too short and the nuggets too rare.

I envision a web site where one by one each letter is recorded by date
written, sender, senders location and receiver (addressee).  We may not know
actually who the sender is hence location could be more reliable then the
senders name.  Each letter need only be summarized once and of course, the
numbers of these letters are finite.  So after some years a high percentage
would be recorded.

The key thing to record in the summary is proper names so that it can be
Searched on the web site.  So you might search Molly Ford in Hudson, NY to
flush out all the known letters to or from Molly or about Molly.  The end
result is a historical picture I don't think we have now.

It would take tremendous effort but I think stamp collectors would cooperate.
 Their respective stamp clubs could do the reading and summaries.  One person
familiar with the proper method of summarizing could be assigned the task at
each stamp club.

Then you would have to record the owner of the letter in case the historical
researcher wanted to actually see the original letter.  This is the bigger
challenge because ownership changes but fortunately not often.

Who would run the web site?  The American Philatelic Society comes to mind as
a key player with a nationwide reach.  Many of the stamp clubs are members of
the APS.

Obviously, I am no historian.  Your thoughts please.

Jim Maguire