Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History
Randall Library, 2nd floor
5162 Randall Dr.
Wilmington, NC 28403
csencah@uncw.edu
910-962-7810
The Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History is located on the 2nd floor of Discovery Hall in the UNCW Library.
The Center is open from 10am to 2pm, Monday - Friday. Appointments are not required, but we strongly encourage visitors to contact us in advance of any planned research visit to discuss your research topic and confirm the availability of collections. Onsite research assistance may be limited.
Prior to visiting the Center, users should familiarize themselves with our access and use policies.
V-Mail, short for "Victory Mail," was a very specific type of correspondence used during World War II (1939-1945). With so many troops fighting in the war, the United States Post Office was inundated with an unprecedented amount of letters between servicemembers and their families. V-Mail provided a faster and cheaper way to route correspondence in an overly taxed system. A letter would be written on a sheet of V-Mail stationery, then microfilmed. The microfilm would be transported overseas (much easier than shipping a bag full of letters) and reprinted onto a miniature sheet of paper about the size of a playing card. This miniaturized copy of the letter would then be delivered to the recipient.
V-Mail was subject to being censored by the government. Sometimes objectionable words or phrases would be blacked out prior to filming, or entire letters would be returned to a soldier because they failed to pass the censor. Writers also had to meet specific requirements in order for the letter to be filmed, such as taking care not to write outside the designated filming area. If a writer wrote outside the lines, sometimes the letter would be rejected, or the original handwritten letter itself would be forwarded to the recipient, rather than being filmed first.
A piece of V-Mail prior to being microfilmed (courtesy of the State Archives of North Carolina)
Microfilmed and reprinted V-Mail as received by the recipient, from the collections of the UNCW Center for Southeast NC Archives and History.
A memorandum (also known as a memo) is a special type of business letter used to communicate information to people working within an organization or company. Memos grew out of a desire to maximize the speed and efficiency of office communication. Companies realized that a lot of money and time could be saved if they pre-printed stationery with the company letterhead and To, From, and Subject fields, rather than having a typist type out a full salutation and introduction for each individual letter. Adding a subject field also helped with filing office correspondence. Memos tend to be short and sweet, containing the most salient points that need to be communicated to a large group of people. They are usually marked with the word "Memo" near the top of the page, and they tend to be focused on timely or urgent subjects, given that they allow communication to be widely disseminated relatively quickly.
From MS 167 Dr. Heyward Bellamy Collection, UNCW Center for Southeast NC Archives and History.
Telegrams were used during the early-mid 20th century to deliver short messages quickly. If a person wanted to send a telegram, they would take their message to a telegraph office and pay for the message to be transmitted. The telegraph office would then transmit the message via Morse code to the recipient's local office, where it would be printed and delivered by a telegram messenger. Telegraph offices charged by the word, so telegram messages usually appear in short, choppy sentences and utilize abbreviations. Early telegrams did not include punctuation, so you will sometimes see the word "STOP" used in place of a period. Telegrams will usually include the date and time they were sent, along with location information and other codes used by the telegraph office, which appear at the top of the page.
From MS 33 John Burney Legislative Papers, UNCW Center for Southeast NC Archives and HIstory.
Parts of a Personal Letter:
From MS 254 Anchram and Elizabeth Evans Civil War Letters, UNCW Center for Southeast NC Archives and History.
Parts of a Business Letter:
From MS 106 Wallace Murchison Papers, UNCW Center for Southeast NC Archives and History.