Review of the Soule Family Collection The collection I decided to research were the Soule Family Papers. In this collection the context had a lot to do with the railroad George worked for. A popular topic discussed in many family newspapers was the weather. In George and Ada's writings there was a lot of talk about the snow and how cold it was while they lived in Grand Forks and Harvey. George spoke specifically on the railroad that there would be enough accumulated snow to stall the trains. Ada's writings were mostly about everyday activities such as household chores, homework, and how cold the weather was in North Dakota during February and the winter months. The Soule family collection captured like a picture North Dakota life in the late 1890s, its harsh climate and economic hardship. North Dakota is a very hardworking state and a comfortable, ordinary place to live and that's what this collection captured best. The collection I researched was called Soule Family Papers and the author was Matthew Soule, who collected all the family papers. The collection of Soule family papers is housed at the NDSU Archives. Matthew Soule has done an excellent job of gathering important documents and records. The contents of this source were a lot of letters back and forth between Matthew Soule and the Archivists, then there were some records including that of George and Amose. Then there were some handwritten letters from George Soule's daughters; Ada and Ruth. All of these are very important documents to the entire collection because they really paint a picture of what life was really like back then and the different views of the family members. The intended audience for Ada's diary...half of the paper...compiled the collection, because for the most part it was pretty basic stuff found in diaries and records. Then knowing that this was a real family and that they were struggling was eye-opening. North Dakota is a very hard working and comfortably normal state, as I stated above this collection captured this very well. This family has done nothing that will remain in history forever and will forever be public knowledge. They were a common family in North Dakota whose lifestyle most of us are familiar with. I would say that if most families had documents and journals dating back to when this family started, many would be very similar with slight differences. North Dakota is a very normal place to live, nothing that exciting happens very often, but the people here now and then I would say were very comfortable.