For those who wished to send someone a written letter or document and did not know how to write, they had the option of going to a public letter writer and pay that person to write the missive. The photo, which dates to 1915, shows several stands set up in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) in Turkey by public letter writers. The one is the foreground has a customer; the one to the right foreground is hoping for a customer. There is another stand in the middle of the photo with two men.