★★★★★ 4.7 / 5 | 📫Thousands of letters mailed | Free US shipping | ✒️Created by award-winning storytellers and puzzle designers
What is a Tin Box Letters subscription?
Tin Box Letters is a historical letter subscription: original stories told through letters and mailed to your door. Twice a month, real snail mail arrives carrying the next chapter of a historical fiction story: letters, diary pages, newspaper clippings, and period-authentic artifacts, with optional light puzzles. One complete story unfolds across 24 mailings over a year.
What you receive
📫 24 mailed envelopes, delivered twice a month across the full year.
📜 An original story told through long, multi-page letters, with illustrations based on real period photographs.
🧩 Optional light puzzles (rebuses, charades, word and logic puzzles) that give you more to explore, while never holding up the story.
🗺️ Newspaper clippings, maps, postcards, and advertisements, inspired by real period sources and aged to feel like the real thing.
📖 Story Companion materials online, with the real history behind each letter.
Who is Tin Box Collector?
The world of Tin Box Letters is curated by Norman Blackwell, the tin box collector. He found the first tin box of letters at a garage sale on the outskirts of Milwaukee. Inside was correspondence from Elizabeth Byrd, a young journalist, and Tom Hawk, describing their adventures in the Klondike in 1897. He loved their story so much, he decided to share it with the world.
Finch and Hawk: The Klondike Letters
Set in the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush, Finch and Hawk follows Elizabeth Byrd, a daredevil journalist sent to cover the stampede, and Tom Hawk, a prospector chasing the dream of gold. Across 24 letters, you’ll step into their adventure through the harsh beauty of the Yukon, where the search for treasure brings danger, treachery, unexpected friendship, and perhaps even love. Real historical figures appear alongside the fictional characters.
How It Works
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Subscribe to the Story
Start a literary adventure by mail.
Choose a beautifully written historical fiction subscription that delivers immersive storytelling in a unique and tactile way. Simple sign-up. Cancel anytime. -
Mailbox Magic
Twice a month, a surprise arrives.
Each envelope includes letters, vintage-style items, and illustrated pages that reveal the next chapter in the story. Everything is delivered with charm and care, right to the mailbox.
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Read and Enjoy!
Let the story come to life.
Explore richly written letters, discover illustrations and artifacts from the era, and follow a captivating historical journey. Puzzles are optional, but offer an extra layer of fun for curious minds.
A gift that arrives all year long
Looking for a unique gift? A Tin Box Letters subscription is a gift people remember. It is perfect for the book lover, the history buff, the grandparent, or anyone who loves a good story and still treasures real mail. Pick the date for the first mailing and download to print or email a gift note for the recipient. Instead of a single present, you're giving a year of anticipation: a new chapter in the mailbox twice a month.
Puzzles, for the Curious
Letters arrive twice a month, and the puzzles are there to enjoy while you wait for the next one. Each envelope might hold a rebus, a charade, a word or logic puzzle, or a hidden-object hunt, all designed to feel true to the era. None of them are required, and they never hold up the story. They're here for the curious: a satisfying way to stay engaged with the world, and a little mental stimulation, while the next chapter makes its way to your mailbox.
Authentic down to the paper
Our stories are fiction, but everything around them is built to be real. The illustrations are drawn from real period photographs. The maps, newspaper clippings, and advertisements are recreated from genuine sources of the era. And every page carries its own aged, weathered texture, so what arrives feels less like a printout and more like a document that survived the years. Open an envelope and the world of 1897 is in your hands.
The Historical Facts Behind the Story
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Digging for Gold in a Land That Would Not Thaw
Full ArticleHow Klondike miners turned frozen ground into gold, moving from pans and rockers to fires, steam points, sluices, and giant dredges in their battle against permafrost.
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Belinda Mulrooney: The Legendary Queen of the Klondike
Full ArticleFrom Irish oil lamps to Arctic empires, the story of a woman who built fortunes where few dared to dream.
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The King of Con: Soapy Smith
Full ArticleA charming con man turned frontier kingpin, Soapy Smith ruled boomtowns like Denver and Skagway with a silver tongue, a crooked deck, and a Winchester, until one final shootout ended his reign.
The creators of Tin Box Letters
We're Alona and Aleksey, the founders of Tin Box Letters. We research, write, and illustrate every letter ourselves, and we put real care into every page. Our goal is simple: to create stories so immersive and authentic that the moment you open an envelope, the world outside disappears.