David in Germany, who informs us that he is yet to be a member {get on that, David!}, keeps sending us really great links to share. His latest find is the Europeana/Great War online archive. They are collecting pictures, letters, postcards, and stories from 1914-1918 to add to their online archive of life in Germany during World War I.
From their website: "The First World War archive is based on an initiative at the University of Oxford where people across Britain were asked to bring family letters, photographs and keepsakes from the War to be digitised. The success of the idea, which became the Great War Archive, has encouraged Europeana, Europe’s digital archive, library and museum, to bring the German National Library into an alliance with Oxford University to roll out the scheme in Germany. The collaboration will bring German stories online alongside their British counterparts in a 1914-18 archive."
You can spend days exploring the archive, but David specifically pointed out this message in a matchbox.
He says, "This stuck in my mind particularly. A letter doesn't have to be long or tidy to be touching and serious."
How right he is.
My (then six year old) grandmother wrote to Santa in 1914, requesting that he bring food and clothes to the Belgian refugees:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/metabrilliant/5425985197/
Posted by: Jonathan | February 24, 2012 at 03:36 PM
Wow! It's really amazing to know and see that some people still have this memorabilia. I hope to see more and more. Keep it coming. :)
Jomer
Posted by: thetasteoffate | February 28, 2012 at 03:21 AM
He's so totally right... and, um, hello! Using a matchbox as an envelope? I am soooo putting that on my list!
Posted by: CMN | February 28, 2012 at 12:52 PM