The Case of the Rescued Letters.
- Flea Market Love Letters
- Jul 4
- 2 min read
Once or twice a year there will come an email to the Flea Market Love Letters inbox (info@fleamarketloveletters.com) where someone writes asking if the archive (therefore I, Liz Maguire, creator and curator) would be interested in either purchasing a collection of letters or receiving a collection. Historically I have said no to these solicitations.
Why?
Because letters are an inherently and intensely personal thing. Emotions are attached and when someone directly linked to the letters is engaging me about them I prefer to recommend ways they may preserve or share the collection within the family.
But in the first weeks of 2025 I received an email from a woman in the U.K. who wrote of a series of letters she was aware of which were about to be discarded after use in an arts project. Would I take the letters in? And uncharacteristically, I said...Yes.
So began a several months adventure of the lovely lady in the U.K. organizing the delivery of the letters in two envelopes very helpfully labeled '1' and '2'. On the day one arrived I awaited the other...and it never materialized. International shipping was playing its tricks again! The parcel had returned to the U.K. and the very generous, patient woman who was making sure the letters made it to me in Dublin went through several hoops for their safe arrival.
And finally, months after we began exchanging emails the letters, postcards and assorted paper ephemera she had saved from the bin did arrive to Flea Market H.Q. Where they will now be cataloged and stored with the rest of the archive to someday, maybe tell the stories written in ink. It's already lived so many lives as were intended and certainly not intended -- see, mysterious art project -- that to now have the letters here in H.Q. feels like a fitting next chapter for the series.
Will this change my stance on 'donated' letters? Likely not but thank you for those who reach out and share their letter stories. I believe we all have a letter story somewhere in our lives. Flea Market Love Letters is a community space for celebrating them.
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