145-year-old, balloon-sent letter found in Australia

A letter from a man to his mother flown out of Paris by hot air balloon during the Prussian siege in 1870 has turned up in Australia’s National Archives, which said Tuesday it was keen to discover the family’s fate.

The Franco-Prussian War saw the Germans completely surround Paris for more than four months that year. Balloon mail was the only way communications from Paris could reach the rest of France, with dozens of flights made, mostly at night, and hundreds of thousands of letters delivered. One of them has been discovered by the National Archives. It was penned in French on December 6, 1870 by a man named Charles Mesnier (or Mesmier) to his mother, care of Monsieur Grussin (or Grossin) at 8 Place de la Ville, Pont-Audemer, in Normandy. “It’s a intriguing human element to an important piece of history,” National Archives assistant director-general Louise Doyle said.

“We’re not sure how it ended up in Australia, but it would be fascinating to know more. If people see this it would be interesting to have more context in relation to this record.”

The letter was transferred to the archive’s Brisbane office from the former Queensland Post and Telegraph Museum in 2001. It came to light recently as part of a joint project between the National Archives of Australia and the Archives Nationales in France.