This week’s #FridayFind is… a 19th century passport application!

Depending on what you define as a passport, they’ve either been around for thousands of years or as recently as the early 20th century. Furthermore they weren’t even consistently required for traveling outside of the United States until World War II! That doesn’t mean passports weren’t useful documents to have in the 19th century. At least, that’s what Edward Gut (the author of our featured passport application) must have thought.

The applications looked a little different in the 19th century too. For example, instead of a photo, the applicant included a written description of themselves, which had to include important details such as… having a “mouth, proportional”? Mr. Gut, we can’t help but wonder if your biases are showing here. You can check out the rest of the description above!

Written descriptions such as the ones in passport applications give us a rare insight into how an ancestor might have viewed themselves. What insights have you found in your research? Let us know by sending an email to emma@backlog-archivists.com!