Primary Source Fun

I was entertained yesterday when reading the Library of Congress’ post “What did Lincoln Say about Extemporaneous Speaking.” The post had an interesting segment of a letter that Lincoln wrote to his wife Mary Todd, though it wasn’t the content of the letter that intrigued me, it was his salutation. He wrote “Dear Wife.” When sharing this with a colleague this morning, he said, “What if you had the students guess who wrote the letter or who it was to.” What a great idea! It could be a, “Who Wrote It” based on the date, salutation, and as much content as they see. Granted, providing a transcript might be needed, but it would be a fun way to have an authentic mystery to solve. Happy Friday!