What can historical letters teach us about past societies?

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, history clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 history.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Professor Cecilia Morgan, a historian at the University of Toronto in Canada. She is reading letters sent in the 1800s to learn what life was like for British settlers living in 19th century Canada.

• This resource also contains an interview with Cecilia and history student, Victoria, and offers an insight into careers in history. If your students have questions for Cecilia or Victoria, they can send them through the Futurum Careers website.

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Cecilia’s research and challenges them to evaluate their modern sources of communication to explore what a historian could learn about their society.

This resource was first published by Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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