Letters in the Attic

The Possession Project

Amid our chaotic jumble of possessions, there is usually a shoebox in the attic, perhaps many boxes, filled with cards and letters, handwritten fragments of a life. These notes, diaries and journals are uniquely personal records that preserve our stories like fossils for future historians, biographers and archivists. But it’s a vanishing resource as pen and ink are replaced by texting, emailing, and voice messaging—digital communications that are transient and vulnerable to technical obsolescence. At the same time, the skill of cursive writing is becoming a lost art, and with that decline, the ability to read the handwritten word. Coming soon on The Possession Project, Kelly Crowe explores the decline and fall of the personal archive and the digital loss of memory