Letters Home from Stanford

A collection of the handwritten and electronic correspondence of generations of Stanford students, Letters Home from Stanford recalls the common human experience of breaking out and trying to find our way as we observe the world around us and look over a shoulder toward home.

From first letters home freshman year and firsthand accounts of historical events, to questions about laundry and questions about self, these letters, emails, and texts evoke a sense of the heritage, history, and shared experience common to college students everywhere, and Stanford students in particular.

Walk the Quad with Lucy, member of the Pioneer Class, who headed west to Stanford in 1891, and Laine, feisty member of the Class of 2016. Live history as Hope celebrates the end of World War I, throw snowballs in the Quad with Elaine in 1962, celebrate with Burnham when he makes the newspaper staff on his second try in 1923, root for the Cardinal—er, Trees?—at yet another Big Game, name the year.

From desks, benches, and patches of grass across campus and the decades, Stanford’s students challenge, en-gage, and inspire you—just like the gang back in the dorm.

One person’s letters tell one Stanford story.

Together, they tell all of ours.