Poe Archive

At the very top of the website on all pages, there is an input box that says "Search letters by authors, title, or full text transcripts...". Using this box you can run a search on the database that will return any letters in which your phrase occurs. This is a ranked search, so results in which your phrase occurs in the author name will display first, the title second, and finally letters with the phrase in the transcript will display last.

On the Letter, Person, and Series pages you will notice an additional search box above the list. This is more akin to a filter, and will allow you to filter the items you are presented by Author, Recipient, Title, Topic or Date. This filter uses an and approach, so as an example, if you wanted to see only letters that discussed slavery during the 1860s, you could use a filter string such as 186 slavery.

In addition to author and recipient name, title, and date the letter was sent, we have an additional filter available, by topic. Topics allow the user to filter by broad category. There are currently five topics, Civil War, Slavery, Colonial, Genealogical, and Historical. While the first three are self explanatory, the visitor should note that letters deemed "genealogical" are generally of interest to people search for ancestors and have otherwise little historical significance. The designation "historical" is reserved for all letters not falling within the first four categories; this would include those written about notable historical events or by notable historical figures.

On the detailed view of all letters, you will notice that the author and recipient names are both clickable hyperlinks. When you click their name, you will be taken to a page that provides information such as Birth and Death dates (where known) as well as a list of all letters in the database that the person wrote or received.

While all letter recipients and authors are hyperlinked, you will notice some have an additional icon next to their name. This icon means that there is additional information about that particular person, and quite often, also additional context for the letter you are viewing. This is where most of the information from "Series" on the original Poe Archive was relocated to. If you see this icon, its often worth a click.

Many of the letters in the database discuss important events in history. To aid the reader in better understanding the context, we have tagged certain letters with those historical events. If you click the name of the event you will be taken to a page that provides additional insight into the event. Quite often this will be a Wikipedia entry, however in select cases where we feel there may be a more thorough source you will be taken directly to it.