Honolulu Civil Beat | Hawaii history: Unpacking lost "dead letters" of a bygone era @civilbeat | Uploaded March 2024 | Updated October 2024, 9 hours ago.
In the 1800s, Americans who died in Hawaii were considered foreigners and the few treasured items they possessed were sent to the U.S. State Department to be delivered to their next of kin. More than 160 ended up as dead letters and stored in boxes at the National Archives.

Reporter Kirstin Downey stumbled upon them one day by accident, as she told Editor-at-Large Naka Nathaniel in this interview about her process and discoveries about long-ago travelers to Hawaii.

Read the series: civilbeat.org/projects/dead-letters