It's that wonderful time of year again...the annual Flea Market Love Letters stock take. In 2023 we explored the archive up to then as well as did of a deep dive into just how the letters are stored. We try to take a day every Spring to tally up letters shared, stored and yet to be featured.
This yearly audit lets us look at the scope of the archive. Many of you may be aware that this is a living, breathing project insofar as it is updated in 'real-time'. Letters are always coming into the archive and we're regularly updating featured series as we go. We share in discovering the letters with our readers.
There's approximately 2,300 letters in the archive with 700 of those shared as part of the 30 series featured since our start in 2017. There are 60 series in the archive as of writing, which means that while we've shared half of the collection there's still plenty to come!
For instance, in 2023 we shared the Lauterbach, Klueppelberg, Brink, and Loudon, and Schwenk letters.
A 'series' of letter are all the letters associated with an individual collection.
Our smallest series is 2 letters and our largest is 172. All the series are stored in sequential binders and recorded in our inventory. That's how we keep track of what we've published, where it was acquired, and most importantly...what exactly is in the collection!
For example, the oldest series in the archive is pre-1850s! They've yet to be featured. They're all legal letters, so not necessarily the most exciting to read... Meanwhile, the next oldest are the McAllister letters from the 1910s, which we featured in 2022.
Can you guess what decade we have the most letters from? Comment below!
Share Your Letter Story.
Do you have a letter story? We'd love to hear it! Write to us at info@fleamarketloveletters.com