Visual Correspondence

Analysing Letters through Data Visualisation

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  • Patrick H. Pearse Letters

    Patrick H. Pearse Letters

    Before 1916, Padraig Pearse was an educational innovator, a writer, a powerful orator and advocate of the Irish language. After 1916 he became synonymous with the Easter Rising in Ireland. Find out more about his life through his letters.

  • Alfred Russel Wallace Letters Online

    Alfred Russel Wallace Letters Online

    If you came up with one of the most important ideas in history, would you give up the credit? Alfred Russel Wallace developed the Theory of Evolution independently to Darwin, but held off publishing his ideas until the older man published his. Explore the world of one of Science's unsung heroes.

  • Elia Kazan: Selected Letters

    Elia Kazan: Selected Letters

    A cultural giant of the Twentieth Century, Elia Kazan directed productions like 'On the Waterfront' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire' for the stage and screen. He worked with writers such as John Steinbeck, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller, as well as actors such as Marlon Brando, James Dean and Robert De Niro. Find out more about his life through his letters.

  • Mark Twain Letters

    Mark Twain Letters

    Samuel Langhorne Clemens was quite simply an institution, and in many ways still is. Taking his pen name from a boat man's cry, he was never more serious than when he was being comic. Find out about one of America's greatest satirists through his letters.

A line

Letters on this Date

  • From Joyce, James To Joyce, Stanislaus (1909)
  • From PF To Bagno, Nicolo Guidi di (1647)
  • From O'Connell, Maurice To O'Connell, Daniel (1813)
  • From Hooker, J. D. To Darwin, Charles Robert (1862)
  • From Wallace, Alfred Russel To Wallace, William Greenell [ARW's son] (1892)
  • From Ashcroft, Ralph W. To Henderson, Archibald (1908)
  • From Longfield & Co. To Daniel Hagan (1875)
  • From Extracts of letter from E. H. Lamont (1849)
  • From Glasheen, Adaline To Wilder, Thornton (1961)

More letters for 14th December

Letter writing is a rich and ancient form of communication. It offers deep insights into the thoughts, feelings and experiences of people from every walk of life in a more immediate way than almost any other medium. As well as the content of letters, the set of circumstances surrounding a letter's creation, transmission and reception tells a story in itself.

Data visualisation strives to make sense of the large and complex, condensing and clarifying complicated data in a single image. It can achieve an impact that words simply cannot replicate.

Visual Correspondence uses data visualisation to makes sense of a person's life through their correspondence. Who they wrote to, who wrote to them, when and where - these flashes of detail unveil a rich narrative about people and our past through images.

As well as providing tools to visualise huge collections of correspondence, in bringing together detail on 165327 letters from 56 collections, Visual Correspondence provides a new way to explore the letters themselves. Links to the full text of the letters are provided were possible and added information helps put the letters in context. Hopefully in exploring this site, you will start to see correspondence in a new way.

Choose a collection and start to visualise

Niall O'Leary Services accepts no liability in respect of the accuracy of data on this website. All data on this site is presented as is and visitors use it at their own risk. Outside of metadata no letter content has been used on this website. All letters and detail on all people's letters are listed.