THE ETIQUETTE OF THANK-YOU CARDS

Gratitude transformed into tangible keepsakes; the etiquette of thank-you cards.

When the 13-year-old Ewart sent a thank-you note to his older sister, Miss Lydia Davies, in 1903, he expected it to arrive back home in Swansea, Wales, by the end of summer. The card could, of course, get lost on its trip across Wales, and his sister would not receive a tangible keepsake of his gratitude. She had recently sent him a missing item while he was vacationing in Fishguard. What he did not expect, however, was for his card to arrive at its designated address, 11 Cradock Street, in August 2024, over a century later. It is not clear how the card ended up circulating into the postal service system, but its delivery resulted in the reunification of the siblings’ descendants.