Cross-Written Letters: A Historical Writing Form from the 19th Century
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Cross-written letters were a popular writing method in the 19th century where two text passages were written over each other at right angles. This unusual technique emerged during a time when both paper and postage costs were expensive.
Origin and Spread
The practice of cross-writing developed in the early days of the postal system in the 19th century. It was especially common in Europe and North America, where the emerging postal services revolutionized correspondence but were simultaneously associated with high costs.
Practical Reasons for Cross-Writing
The main reason for this writing technique was purely economic. Postage costs were calculated based on the number of sheets, not by weight as they are today. Through cross-writing, letter writers could fit twice the amount of text on a single sheet and thus save on postage fees.
Additionally, paper itself was a valuable commodity. Paper production was laborious and expensive, which is why many people wanted to use every square centimeter of the precious material.
Decline of the Writing Technique
With industrialization and the associated advances in paper production, the price of paper decreased significantly. At the same time, many countries reformed their postal systems in the mid-19th century, leading to more affordable postage fees.
The Penny Post in Great Britain (1840) and similar reforms in other countries led to standardized postage regardless of distance. These changes made space-optimized writing less necessary.
By the end of the 19th century, the practice of cross-writing had largely disappeared. Today, cross-written letters are valuable historical documents that provide insights into the communication habits and economic realities of the 19th century.
