In every generation, parents panic about rampant, out-of-control teenage sexual experimentation. And they convince themselves that their children are far more promiscuous than previous generations. But long before cell phones and sexting spurred modern anxieties, there were letters, and their contents suggest that adolescents’ behavior has been remarkably consistent. In this talk, David Mislin revisits the mid-nineteenth century — a time we imagine to be the height of moral behavior — and explores how technology has changed, but attitudes and behavior have not.