Description: My podcast, Letters from the Past brings history to life through personal letters, diaries, and firsthand accounts found in archives around the world. Each episode dives into a historical letter—whether from a soldier on the front lines, a secret love affair, or a political leader in crisis—offering an intimate glimpse into history through the words of those who lived it. Audio edited using GarageBand.
Image Credits: The image, “Letters From The Past” is created by Emily Murray licensed under CC BY-NC-SA, and is a derivative based on “Old Notes in an Office” by Colin Fearing, downloaded from Pexels, some rights reserved.
Sound Credits:
“Dreams of Trees” by The Owl on the Internet Archive in the Free Music Collection, some rights reserved.
“Paper Rustling 01” by swidmark, on Freesound is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal.
“Writing 01” by Leandri140029, on Freesound is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal.
“S17 TICKING CLOCK” by AHTepsilon, on Freesound is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal.
“Abigail Adams to John Adams 16 October 1774, Adams Family Papers – Abigail Adams” on the Internet Archive is licensed under the Public Domain.
“Anne Bradstreet: A Leter to her Husband Absent Upon Public Employment – Anne Bradstreet” on the Internet Archive is licensed under the Public Domain.
“The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allen Poe – Edgar Allen Poe” on the Internet Archive is licensed under the Public Domain.
The audio in “Letters From The Past” was created by Emily Murray, and is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
The podcast “Letters From The Past” by Emily Murray is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Hi Emily,
What a creative idea for a podcast! I wish could actually listen to an entire episode.
Your introduction works well with the rustling of pages and writing. I like how the podcast host begins speaking immediately following these sound effects, as if the voice recording is the letter being written. The use of background music starting up a few seconds after the voice recording begins helps to further draw the listener into the podcast. The music creates a nostalgic feel as do the use of audio clips from actual historical letters.
I think this concept would be fascinating to further develop. I imagine the letters that could be covered are endless.
I have two minor improvements to suggest. I would recommend lowering the volume on the background music as at points it slightly overpowers the voice recording. Also the transitions from the podcast host recording to the the audio clips from the letters could be a little smoother, possibly fading in and out the different audio or adjusting volume on the individual audio may help achieve this.
Also, I don’t think there is a Creative Common license on the blog post for your audio.
Overall, great job! I really enjoyed this!
This is a really cool idea Emily! I would personally love a historical letters from the past podcast, its a cool concept with a wide audience and lots of subject material. I think the image is good, a good size and the font is very reader friendly. The audio is loud and clear, it is just a lot going on once you get into it. The pages at the beginning and then your voice, clear and great volume. But then you get into more effects, I think the Ticking Clock is too much it is really very distracting for me the whole time. I like the soft music you chose, and I don’t think that is too loud I think that is at a good volume with your voice I can hear you clearly. The character voices caught me off guard too the first time, but I think if there wasn’t so much going on with the music and the clock for those parts then those other voices would fit in better there. Overall I can tell you put a lot of work into this and I think it is brilliant honestly.