I have a problem: I can't stop buying other people's dead relatives' papers.
Storage units, estate sales, auction houses. If there's a box of old letters gathering dust somewhere, I'm probably already bidding on it. Then I bring it home, put on my archival gloves and sometimes a mask (rodent droppings are a real problem), and disappear into someone else's life for a few weeks.
Last month I bought a collection of 1920s correspondence and found anti-Prohibition essays, love letters, a private detective report, and evidence that a wealthy New Jersey woman founded an animal rescue league in Palm Beach. This week I'm cataloging calling cards and trying to figure out if any of these people knew the Vanderbilts.
This is where I'll share what I find. The raw discoveries, the mysteries I'm solving in real time, the "holy shit, look at this" moments that happen when you're elbow-deep in ephemera at 2am. I've learned that my auDHD really loves a good feedback loop, so I'm hoping this is it. God spare me from YouTube or TikTok. I just can't.
If you're into genealogy, history, forgotten women doing interesting things, or you just love a good detective story, stick around.
Let's see what's in the box.
—Launa