Friday, February 14, 2014
Submitted by Brenna Campbell

As part of our normal digitization workflow, all rare materials being scanned are first assessed for condition problems by the Conservation Department. Last week, during an assessment of the McDill family papers, we ran across this mysterious folded letter.

Written on both sides were numbered sets of rhyming couplets, which seemed to have a romantic tone. By carefully unfolding the paper, we revealed the full content of the letter; it was a proposal of marriage, complete with illustrations.

While we had it open, we tried to reverse-engineer the letter, in order to make a model of our own. Many of the folds were torn, which made it more difficult to identify the original structure. With a little help from Google, we identified it as a “Victorian Puzzle Purse,” and learned that it was a popular way to fold a letter to that special someone.

If you would like to make a Victorian Puzzle Purse for your beloved, instructions can be found here: http://www.origami-resource-center.com/puzzle-purse-instructions.html