A Federal office I once worked for had original records dating back more than 100 years. They converted all the old documents to digital, and threw the originals away. A coworker and I were able to "rescue" some documents. I liked the letters from various railroad companies. They used a super polite manner of writing. They were very wordy, but made just about anything sound friendly. As a paraphrase, "Dear _____, I trust all in your office are doing well. I am writing to you today because I am somewhat concerned that our letter of ______, 1910, may not have received the attention we desire. Please let me know at your earliest convenience when we can meet to discuss the issues we previously raised. etc. etc." I'm not doing how they really typed justice, but I hope you get an idea of the differences between then and now. Today it would be, just a to: block, followed by a subject line: letter of _____, 2023. And then, because we have not received a response to our letter of ______, we request a meeting with your staff as soon as possible. I will call to arrange the meeting.
People spoke so much more elegantly 100 years ago.
A Federal office I once worked for had original records dating back more than 100 years. They converted all the old documents to digital, and threw the originals away. A coworker and I were able to "rescue" some documents. I liked the letters from various railroad companies. They used a super polite manner of writing. They were very wordy, but made just about anything sound friendly. As a paraphrase, "Dear _____, I trust all in your office are doing well. I am writing to you today because I am somewhat concerned that our letter of ______, 1910, may not have received the attention we desire. Please let me know at your earliest convenience when we can meet to discuss the issues we previously raised. etc. etc." I'm not doing how they really typed justice, but I hope you get an idea of the differences between then and now. Today it would be, just a to: block, followed by a subject line: letter of _____, 2023. And then, because we have not received a response to our letter of ______, we request a meeting with your staff as soon as possible. I will call to arrange the meeting.