filter_framesWar of the Worlds Fan Mail

The Richard Wilson - Orson Welles Papers at the University of Michigan Library Special Collections Research Center preserves 1,349 letters sent to the New York City office of Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre on the Air after the original CBS Radio Network broadcast of War of the Worlds on Sunday, October 30, 1938. Long forgotten for many years, the letters were included in the collection of materials Richard Wilson, Welles’s longtime friend and producing partner, safeguarded. Wilson’s son, Christopher, gifted the materials to the University of Michigan Library in 2005. These letters offer a unique window into early American radio broadcasting and reception by documenting how audiences reacted to one of the most discussed and examined programs in the medium’s history. Made available digitally for the first time, they also present an opportunity to make radio history come alive by using the full story of War of the Worlds to address issues of media misinformation and “fake news” that are particularly relevant to our present moment.

The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes. Some materials may be protected by copyright. If you decide to use any of these materials, you are responsible for making your own legal assessment and securing any necessary permission.

How to Use This Collection

The search bar at the top of this page allows users to search for words like city and author names, as well as within the transcribed text of the letters. It is best to search only a single word, like only a city name or a last name or a word that might be in a letter, because this search engine searches for exact strings and it is difficult to know how people signed their letters or abbreviated their addresses.

To browse the collection by American state, Canadian province, or country (limited to some in Europe, South America, and the Caribbean), select "Browse by Subject Term." Here, you can also browse the collection by letter type/medium (e.g. handwritten letter, typed letter, postcards, etc.) and by a limited amount of content description. These subject terms will show groupings of letters containing similar reactions to the broadcast, such as writers who were "frightened," "not frightened," or "did not hear" it when performed on October 30, 1938. Not every letter is tagged with reactions, however.

"Browse by author" presents a list of letters organized alphabetically by last/surname or by first name or pseudonym if the author did not include a last name. Authors who did not sign their letter or whose names are unintelligible are listed as authored by “Undetermined” and can be found under “U” in the index.

Contact our team at the link at the bottom of this page. We are especially excited to receive emails containing:

• Local or family stories, myths, and/or legends about the broadcast and its aftermath.
• Ways that you have used the War of the Worlds letters for scholarship, creative projects, and/or teaching.
• Details of your favorite letter(s) and why.
• Corrections to letter transcriptions or the website.

Editorial and Production

Principal Investigators: Philip Hallman (University of Michigan) and Vincent Longo (Western Michigan University)

Production Staff: Kat Hagedorn, Lauren Havens, Chris Powell, Justin Schell (all University of Michigan Library)

Research Assistants: Nicholas Ando, Noah Beck, Andie Klisz, Alyssa Longo, Melanie Mosqueda, Jianna Nazifi, Katherine Sherry, Nicole Winthrop

Special Thanks: Samantha Blickhan, Heidi Burkhardt, Cynthia Burnstein, Tiffany Browne, Martha Conway, Paul Conway, Stephanie Dooper, Michelle Ferrez, Ankita Gupta, Alix Keener, Michigan Public Radio, Melissa Nuyda, Diana Perpich, Amanda Peters, Taylor Rajter, Hope Schaeffer, A. Brad Schwartz, Karl Sikkenga, Theresa Stanko, University of Michigan Library Engagement Fellows Program, University of Michigan Library Technology Alignment and Stewardship Committee, University of Michigan Research Opportunity Program, University of Michigan School of Information SI 675 (Madison Goforth, Brian Matzke, Megan Milewski, Lizzie Edgar, Katherine Louise Stadtmiller, and Emily Jane Koelzer)

This project would not have been possible without the generous efforts of more than 1200 volunteers who transcribed letters on the My Dear Mr. Welles Zooniverse project.

For More Information

Schwartz, A. Brad. Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News (New York: Hill and Wang, 2015).

Writers also sent more than 600 additional letters containing their reactions to the War of the Worlds broadcast to the Federal Communications Commission. These letters are available to view in person at the National Archives: Office of the Executive Director, General Correspondence files, 1927–46, Records of the Federal Communications Commission, Record Group 173, National Archives at College Park, Maryland.

Coming soon: The University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center acquired several scrapbooks containing newspaper articles covering the aftermath of the War of the Worlds broadcast. The scrapbooks are organized by city and state and include articles written and/or republished by newspapers of different scales and locales in the United States, including many from relatively small, rural publishers. We will publish additional information about accessing these materials when they become available.

If you are an instructor at any level (primary through higher education) and want to use the War of the Worlds letters in a class, check back here in the near future. We will soon include a link to a teaching page that includes lesson plans and lesson ideas made especially for these materials.