A RAILROAD FAMILY IN THE EARLY 1920s

The monthly letters of the James & Rosanna Banks Family tell the story of a railroad family at home and at work on the Pennsylvania Railroad in the first half of the 1920s. Called “chain letters” by the family, each finished letter includes an individual letter or “link” from each of the 11 brothers and sisters added one by one as the letter circulated by mail from home to home. Each monthly letter connected the siblings and their families in a written chain of family news. The Banks Family has continued this chain-letter-writing tradition for almost 90 years completing chain letter #1061 in December 2009. This volume contains the first 26 letters written from 1921 to 1925 along with early family photos and newspaper clippings about this letter-writing railroad family.