Invention

Letter of recommendation

Servants in Tudor England carried written characters from their masters to prove they were not vagrants.

Europe · 16th century

In Tudor England, servants who left one household for another were required to carry a written "character" from their former employer.1 The Statute of Artificers of 1563 formalized this practice, making it illegal for a master to hire a servant who could not produce testimonial evidence of their good conduct. The document served as both a reference and a form of social control, distinguishing mobile workers from vagrants in a society deeply suspicious of people without fixed employment.

The practice migrated into trade and commerce. By the eighteenth century, merchants, apprentices completing their terms, and professionals seeking new positions carried letters attesting to their character, competence, and trustworthiness. The letter of recommendation became a gateway document, controlling access to employment by requiring endorsement from someone who already held authority.2

In the American academic system, letters of recommendation became a formal requirement for college admissions in the early twentieth century, coinciding with the expansion of selective admissions processes.3

Research on the reliability of recommendation letters has raised persistent questions. Studies have found that letters tend to reflect the letter writer's relationship with the candidate more than the candidate's abilities, and that gender and racial bias affect both the language used and the strength of endorsement.4

As of 2024, most American universities, graduate programs, and professional job applications still require between two and five letters of recommendation. The Common Application, used by over 1,000 American colleges, requires at least one counselor recommendation and typically expects two teacher recommendations.3

Timeline

1563

The Statute of Artificers required servants to carry written characters from former employers.

18th century

Letters of recommendation spread into trade and commerce as endorsements of character and competence.

Early 1900s

American universities incorporated recommendation letters into selective admissions processes.

Endnotes

1 Robert J. Steinfeld, The Invention of Free Labor: The Employment Relation in English and American Law and Culture, 1350–1870 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991).

2 E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (London: Victor Gollancz, 1963).

3 Jerome Karabel, The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005).

4 Juan Madera, Michelle Hebl, and Randi Martin, "Gender and Letters of Recommendation for Academia: Agentic and Communal Differences," Journal of Applied Psychology 94, no. 6 (2009): 1591–1599.