How to Scan Old Letters and Keep the Story With Them

The shoebox has been in your aunt's wardrobe for thirty years. Inside: letters your grandfather wrote from a training camp in 1951, thin blue airmail paper, some still in their envelopes. A few are tied with string. One has a pressed flower falling out of the fold. Your aunt hands you the box and says, "Nobody else can read his writing any more."

Scanning will keep the paper. Keeping the story takes one more step. To digitize old letters, sort them gently, scan or photograph each page in even light at 300 to 600 dpi, name the files in a consistent pattern, and record who wrote each letter, to whom, when and why it matters, while someone who knows can still tell you. Here's how to do it without damaging a thing.

What you'll need

• Clean, dry hands (cotton gloves are optional; clean hands are often safer for thin paper)
• A clear table with a soft cloth on it
• A flatbed scanner, or a smartphone with a good camera
• Even light: a window with indirect daylight, or two lamps at angles
• Pencil and paper (never pen near originals) for notes
• Acid-free folders or envelopes for storage afterwards

The US National Archives has a helpful page on caring for family papers and archives, with advice on handling, storage and what to avoid. It's worth reading before you start on anything very old or fragile.

Step 1: Sort before you scan

Resist scanning the first letter you pick up. Ten minutes of sorting saves hours later.

1. Keep letters with their envelopes. Postmarks, stamps and addresses are evidence of dates and places.
2. Group by writer, then put each group in date order as best you can.
3. Number each letter in pencil on a separate slip of paper, not on the letter.
4. Set aside the fragile ones: torn folds, brittle edges, flaking ink. They get photographed, not pressed on glass.
5. Note what's tucked inside. Photos, pressed flowers, ticket stubs and newspaper clippings belong with their letter.

Step 2: Handle with care

• Unfold letters slowly. If a fold resists or cracks, stop and photograph it partly open.
• Remove paper clips, pins and rubber bands; they rust and stain. Don't force them.
• Don't try to flatten with an iron or heavy books on very old paper.
• Never use sticky tape to mend a tear. It yellows and damages paper over time.
• Keep food and drink well away from the table.

Step 3: Capture each page

With a flatbed scanner

1. Clean the glass with a soft, dry cloth.
2. Choose colour mode, even for black ink. Colour shows paper tone, faded ink and corrections.
3. Scan at 300 dpi for normal reading; 600 dpi for small or faint handwriting.
4. Save a master copy as TIFF or high-quality JPEG. You can make smaller copies for sharing later.
5. Scan the envelope front and back, and both sides of every page, even if one looks blank.

With a phone

1. Lay the letter flat on a dark, matte cloth, near a window but out of direct sun.
2. Hold the phone directly above, parallel to the page, so the edges look square.
3. Turn off the flash. It creates glare and hot spots.
4. Fill the frame with the page, with a small border around it.
5. Tap to focus on the writing and check the image is sharp before moving on.

Glow's phone scanning is designed for exactly this kind of job: it finds the edges of a page or print and flattens it, and it can split several items photographed in one shot. Then you can add the story right beside the scan, including a voice comment from the relative who remembers it.

Step 4: Name files so they stay in order

Pick a pattern and never change it. A simple one:

Year-month-day_writer_to-recipient_page

• 1951-03-14_Grandpa-Leo_to-Hannah_p1
• 1951-03-14_Grandpa-Leo_to-Hannah_p2
• 1951-03-14_Grandpa-Leo_to-Hannah_envelope-front

If you don't know the exact date, use what you have: "1951-xx-xx" or "c1950". The files will still sort in roughly the right order.

Step 5: Capture the story, not just the paper

This is the step that turns a scan into family history. For each letter, or each bundle, write a short note answering:

• Who wrote it, and who was it to? Full names, plus what the family called them.
• When and where? From the postmark, the letter itself, or best guess.
• What was happening in their lives? "Leo was doing his army service; Hannah was 19 and working in her father's shop."
• Who's mentioned? Names, places, nicknames you need to explain.
• Why was it kept? Sometimes the reason is the whole story.

Then ask the people who might know. Bring the scans, or the letters themselves, to the oldest relatives you can reach and ask:

• "Do you recognise this handwriting?"
• "Who is 'little Mosh' in this letter?"
• "Did you know they wrote to each other while he was away?"
• "Where was this address? Did you ever visit?"
• "Was there anything about these two that the family didn't talk about?"

Record the answers if they agree. Hearing your aunt explain the letters in her own voice is a second treasure, filed right beside the first.

Step 6: Transcribe the important ones

Handwriting gets harder to read with every generation. A typed transcription makes letters readable for grandchildren who never learned cursive.

1. Zoom in on the scan and type exactly what you see, including spelling mistakes.
2. Use [?] for words you can't read and [illegible] for longer gaps.
3. Note crossed-out words and additions in the margins.
4. Translate if needed, but keep the original language too.
5. Ask someone else to check the hardest passages. Fresh eyes find words you've stared past.

Step 7: Store originals and copies safely

• Originals: flat, unfolded where possible, in acid-free folders, in a box kept somewhere cool, dry and dark. Avoid attics, basements and anywhere near radiators.
• Digital copies: at least two copies in two different places, such as a computer and a cloud service, plus an external drive if you like.
• The notes: keep your descriptions and transcriptions with the scans, not in a separate notebook that can drift away.

How long it usually takes

Set expectations so you don't give up halfway. Sorting a shoebox of letters is often an evening's work. Capturing them takes roughly a minute or two per page once you have a rhythm, a little longer for fragile pages and envelopes. The notes and conversations take longest, and are worth the most.

A pace that works for many families: one bundle a week. Sort on Monday, scan on Saturday morning, and bring the questions to Sunday lunch with the relatives who might know.

Turn the letters into something people read

A folder of scans is safe, but it rarely gets opened. A few ways to make letters part of the family story:

• Put them on a timeline. Letters placed beside the photos from the same year suddenly make sense: here's the camp he wrote from, here's the shop she mentions.
• Pair a letter with a voice. Ask a grandchild to read a short letter aloud and record it, or ask the relative who knew the writer to tell its story.
• Pick a favourite line. One sentence from a letter, printed and framed, can say more than the whole box.
• Read one at a family gathering. Choose a letter that's funny or tender, and ask the oldest person in the room what they remember.

Think before you share

Letters are private by nature. Some hold love, family conflict, illness or secrets the writer never imagined anyone else reading. Before sharing beyond the immediate family, talk it through with relatives, especially anyone mentioned who is still living. A private family space is often the right home for letters like these; you can always decide later to share a few more widely.

Your next step

Pick one bundle of letters this weekend, perhaps the smallest. Sort it by date, photograph or scan every page and envelope, and name the files. Then call the relative most likely to know the writer, and ask them to tell you the story behind just one letter.