This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Ari Siegel, founder of History By Mail, a subscription-based business selling replicas of historical documents. The piece has been edited for length and clarity. Growing up, I was always a history buff. Both of my grandfathers were in World War II, so I heard them tell war stories. I went on to become an intern at the U.S. Senate. I gave tours of the U.S. Capitol building. One day, when I was at the Library of Congress, they had some documents on display. They had recently discovered they were just sitting in boxes. One was a letter from President Abraham Lincoln. It gave me chills. I felt transported back to the Civil War era. It didn’t seem right that documents that belong to the American people are just sitting in a box, in a warehouse somewhere. So I started to replicate the letter for family and friends, not as a side hustle or business. They loved it. So I created more documents. They wanted it in a regular cadence, so I made it a subscription.…