10/08/2026
What can thousands of letters written nearly 200 years ago tell us about the world? Quite a lot.
The Carlyle Letters Online is a free digital archive of letters written by 19th-century Scottish writers Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle. The collection offers a firsthand look at the people, ideas and everyday life of the Victorian era, including correspondence with figures such as Charles Dickens, George Eliot and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Now, this scholarly resource used by researchers around the world has a home at WCU’s Hunter Library.
WCU Professor of English Studies Brent Kinser has spent more than 25 years helping build and preserve The Carlyle Letters Online. He has made $30,000 in gifts and pledges to establish an endowment that will help maintain and develop the archive while giving WCU students hands-on experience through research fellowships and internships.
For Kinser, it’s a full-circle moment: a project that has shaped his career is now part of WCU’s academic legacy and creating opportunities for the next generation of Catamounts.
Explore The Carlyle Letters Online and read the full story here: https://www.wcu.edu/stories/posts/english-lit-scholar-endows-fund-to-support-online-archive-of-carlyle-letters-at-wcu.aspx
https://carlyleletters.wcu.edu/
