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A teeny, tiny letter from 1899 uncovered by local archivists might be one of the smallest to have ever been sent in Jersey – so small, in fact, that the sender posted it just "for fun".
In celebration of the national #ExploreYourArchive week, archives across the British Isles have been sharing their smallest items, but Jersey Archive's finding seems to have taken 'small' to another level.
The letter was successfully delivered by Jersey Post to Maud Harden of 17 Elysian Terrace on St Saviour's Road on March 16, 1899 – 124 years ago.
This was despite being in an envelope that measured just 3cm by 5.4cm – that's about half a business card, or the size of a small rubber!
Pictured: the letter compared to a rubber. (Jersey Heritage)
The stamp dwarfed most of the envelope, and the sender, named 'Katherine', wrote: "I don't know whether this will reach you or not but I thought I would try, for fun."
It was sent from London, where 'Katherine' was living at the time – the letter refers to her going for a walk to Hampton Court and having visited Petersham Church.
It goes on to describe the return of 'Mary' to school after an injury.
Pictured: The letter in full. (Jersey Heritage)
Harry Le Feuvre, the Archive's Digital Access Manager who is cataloguing the Jersey Post collection, said: "We’re unsure how it came to be in the collection but perhaps someone donated it so that it could be put on display in the Postal Museum. As to who Maud Harden was, our best guess is that she was ‘Helen Maud Harden’."
She was born on 1 March 1885 and is on the 1891 and 1901 censuses at St Brelade’s Bay Hotel, as her father, Allan Brewster Harden, seems to have been the Hotel Keeper there for several years.
The letter arrived at Jersey Archive in October 2010 as part of a big accession of material, mainly containing the artwork for all the main stamp issues between 1969 and 2009, and artwork and papers relating to other philatelic items.
Pictured: Measuring the letter. (Jersey Heritage)
The accession also contained lots of material relating to the administration and history of the Post Office in Jersey prior to 1969 when it became independent from the General Post Office in the UK with the formation of the Department for Postal Administration.
To uncover more items and stories like this, visit Jersey Archive or search its online catalogue.
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