Letters of Western Expansion

       

This image is from postalmuseum.si.edu. 

         The article "Letters of Westward Expansion," on postalmuseum.si.edu, is centered around the importance of the connectivity letters provided in the West during Westward Expansion. The article begins with the following quote which best summarizes the entire goal of the paper " Letters connected all of these migrants with the homes they had left behind, and helped to build an interconnecting network of people across the vast new country that was developing."  The article begins with the example of Anna who had gone out West to escape the poverty she was faced with at home. But to stay in touch with the family she left in Maryland she wrote them letters "correspondence between Anna and her family had allowed them to remain close for all those years." The article even goes as far as to say that Anna's correspondences provide an informative example to the reader of the Western way of life. The article then lists other people such as Christian missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman who used letters to stay in contact with family back home. In addition, the article gives the example of "mill hands" who the article describes as showing the reality of their situation from the family and convey the reason factory work was a favorable change from life at home. The article also discusses the ability letters had to keep people updated "about any major familial news." Overall, this article was extremely interesting and informative about the importance of letters in the West.