
Unfortunately no pieces of mail still exist between the original Pilgrims and their friends and family back in Europe. The National Postal Museum does have an important piece of history in the correspondence between later English settlers and their homeland, the earliest recorded packet (contract mail ship) letter from North America back to England dates from 1711. The ships that carried these letters back and forth were often built from the abundant hardwoods that flourished in the New England forests where the Pilgrims first settled.