Long before there were satellite cell phones, before all-you-can-drink long distance, before Facetime, Zoom, Facebook, MySpace; before VHS, before cassettes, there were “Living Letters.”
“Living Letters” was the brand name chosen by 3M/Scotch for 3” reels of audio tape in a durable mailing case that could be sent (for about 24 cents) to your loved ones far away.
Using small portable open-reel tape recorders, they could carry between 20-60 minutes of voices and sounds that captured an audio snapshot of what was going on in the world of the senders - in their own voices. These were popular during the Vietnam war in the 60s.
As the Compact Cassette grew in popularity, they packaged cassettes in mailers and continued offering this messaging medium through the 70s as well.
We just finished a batch of Living Letter reels from the Vietnam era, and while we only listen for quality checks, it was clear that this was a family who wanted to send their love to their son on the ground in that conflict, and for him to send his love back to them in a much more personal way than a written letter. Truly it was precious content for this family.
Living Letters have survived the years. Unless they were water damaged, most are still playable and sound as good as the day they were recorded.
To preserve the sometimes fragile tape, we play them on professional equipment that’s gentle on the tape, and then can apply equalization (tone adjustments) to correct for the cheap tinny microphones that may have been used, or “dehum” to remove the annoying hum that sometimes afflicted those cheap recorders.
Whether they're on the little reels or the audio cassettes, Living Letters are your family’s living history. If you have a box full of them, preserve them at Advent Digitizing. Count them up and request an estimate, and we’ll save this part of your legacy for generations to come
Preserve Your Living Letters