Canadian museum sets up program to encourage handwritten letters

VANCOUVER, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A museum in the Canadian province of British Columbia has set up letter writing stations in an attempt to encourage people to write letters by hand.

In doing so, the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, the provincial capital, reminds people of the archival material they will leave behind in an age of emailing and texting.

Lamenting the fact that few people write letters anymore nowadays, Angel Williams, the museum's chief operating officer, said in a statement on Saturday that unless people "start writing letters again, we won't have that sort of material in the archives."

Williams said letters make up history, "whether it's soldiers writing home during World War I, or public figures expressing their views."

"So it's one of those things that we're trying to encourage people to sit down, slow down a bit and handwrite a letter to somebody," she added.

To that end, the museum has set up letter writing stations as part of its Community Days event running from Jan. 2 to Jan. 9.