Long before they became history, these were just letters home.
It started, as many good stories do, by accident.
While sorting through stamp collections purchased for inventory, I began to notice something tucked quietly among the envelopes and covers—letters. Real letters. Not the kind written for publication or preserved in archives, but everyday correspondence: folded, worn, sometimes smudged, and often deeply personal. They had survived not because anyone set out to save them, but because they happened to travel alongside stamps.
For a time I worked in a base post office in Germany. Mail has always carried a certain gravity for me—more than paper and ink, it’s connection, reassurance, sometimes the only thread between two worlds. Seeing these letters again, decades later, I recognized that same quiet importance. These weren’t just collectibles. They were voices.
What you’ll find here is the beginning of a much larger collection—letters from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and beyond. At present, the letters number in the hundreds, and I am working to transcribe, translate, and annotate them as quickly and carefully as possible. This is very much a living project, growing over time as more material is processed and shared.
This effort is, at its heart, about preservation. Not the polished, official version of history, but the lived one—the weather complaints, the longing, the routines, the small jokes, and the steady presence of home in the minds of people far away from it. These letters were never meant to last this long. That they have is something close to a miracle.
Looking ahead, I hope to bring these collections together into a book, with proceeds benefiting charity (organizations such as the Red Cross, USO, or similar groups supporting service members and veterans). It feels like a fitting way to carry these voices forward—connecting past service to present need.
As for the original materials, they are being carefully preserved with the intention of eventual donation to libraries, archives, or historical societies, where they can be properly housed and made available for future research. These letters deserve a permanent home—one that ensures they will continue to be read, studied, and remembered.
Until then, this is their waystation.
And now, you’re invited to read them.
Cpl. Louis G, Chouinard
Cpl. Louis G. Chouinard served not at the front’s thunder, but in the vital, unglamorous machinery that kept an army moving—and for a fleeting moment, traded war’s weight for the light of Paris.
Updated May 1, 2026
Anatole Deconinck
A young French soldier captured at the start of the war, Anatole kept love alive through steady, tender letters home.
From behind barbed wire, his words carry hope, longing, and the quiet endurance of a life on pause.
Updated May 1, 2026
Cpl. Richard Rosa
Corporal Richard Rosa served in Korea in the months following the armistice, when the war had ended but the experience of service had not. His letters home capture the quiet realities of that time—routine, distance, and the steady effort to stay connected to those he left behind.
Further Reading:
The Postage Stamp in War
Fred J. Melville
Free eBook
Published in 1915, this volume explores the essential role of the postal system in war—carrying letters, sustaining morale, and linking soldiers to home across vast distances. A perfect companion to the letters in this collection.
War Prisoner Money and Medals
Guido Kisch
Free eBook
A reprinted 1961 study of the special currencies, medals, and tokens connected with prisoners of war—covering World War I internment camp money, German and French prisoner medals, and U.S. “historical tokens” relating to Revolutionary and Civil War prisons. An essential reference for collectors of military and emergency numismatics.
Alsace in Rust and Gold
Edith O’Shaughnessy
Free eBook
A firsthand World War I travel memoir capturing Alsace in November 1918, as the region transitions from German rule back to France in the days surrounding the Armistice.
Vagabonding Through
Changing Germany
Harry A. Franck
Free eBook
A firsthand 1920 account of post–World War I Germany documenting American occupation, civilian life, and the uneasy aftermath of defeat in the Rhineland. Illustrated with the author’s own photographs.