I've posted this information in other places, but am just getting
around to putting it here on the main list. By now, I suppose most
people who were unable to attend the "We Live and Breathe" 10th
anniversary celebration back in September have at least heard about
the letterboxing museum that was on display during the event. I
really must say that it was a very cool exhibit, with contributions
being sent in from around the country and from Dartmoor.

I think maybe the most exciting part of the museum was the impressive
collection of PATCHES from various stages in letterboxing history.
This display included many hard-to-find and one-of-a-kind patches,
including contributions from the Dartmoor 100 Club, Valley Quest,
World of Letterboxing, and several U.S. and Dartmoor letterboxers. A
number of obsolete regional and event patches were included, in
addition to various letterboxing awards and novelties.

Once we fully comprehended just how significant this collection had
turned out to be, some of us members of the event planning committee
decided to convert it into a permanent display which will be visiting
many letterboxing events in the years to come. In fact, we're
contributing quite a bit of our own money in an ongoing effort to
preserve this aspect of our hobby's history and share it with others.

We've decided to call this project "The Traveling Repository of
Letterboxing Patches" and we're also in the process of putting the
entire collection online. We believe this historical information
deserves to be made available to as many people as possible.

http://www.weliveandbreathe.com/history.htm

Of course, we don't think it's enough to merely show you the patches.
We want to create a record of the stories behind them all before they
are forgotten and lost forever. This is a huge undertaking, and we
desperately need YOUR HELP!

Please take some time to visit our online exhibit. If you have
information to go along with any of the patches, please contact me as
soon as possible. In particular, we want to document the
circumstances that led to the existence of each patch -- Who designed
it? How was it inspired? When did it become available?

We also need to know about any patches that are missing from the
collection. We need you to help us gather this historical information
so it can be shared with generations of letterboxers to come. Our
current goal is to have everything organized and ready for exhibition
at LB CON 2009.

Feel free to contact me here on Yahoo, or write to MAIL at
weliveandbreathe dot com.

Thank you.

Mitch, Der Mad Stamper
- "We Live and Breathe Letterboxing" planning committee member
- Designer and co-founder of Letterboxing North America
(www.letterboxing.org)