This elaborately embossed envelope addressed to Lizzie Johnson features fruits, flowers, and birds on the front. A tiny dog appears on the back of the envelope, just above the seal.
This letter from a female cousin of Lizzie Johnson's features enclosures including a striped swatch of woven fabric and a scrap of paper that reads, "Dont you think I am smart."
This letter to Lizzie Johnson references the onset of the Civil War (1861-65). The writer expresses surprise that "so dark a cloud would bespread the political horizon of our beloved country. Several companies from near here have left for war."
This letter to Lizzie Johnson features an embossed envelope, discusses several recent marriages, and urges Johnson to visit: "Lizzie come and we'll go around fall in love, flirt and I'll talk for you and you do the same for me and we'll get married before any body knows it but ourselves."
Letter from C. E. Detmold in New York to Edward Trelawny at Putney Hill near London. It discusses his fears for Thomas Falconer's safety as he has heard that the "Texian" Santa Fe Expedition had been captured by Mexican forces and touches on British Whig finance politics. Detmold is Christian Edward Detmold (see Wikipedia article) and Trelawny is John Edward Trelawny the English biographer, novelist, adventurer and friend of the Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.
Letter from unknown author from Washington [D.C.] to Falconer thanking him for a letter and an article from the Washington Review. The author hopes that the "vexatious" war with Mexico will be cut short and references the border dispute between Oregon and Canada that was settled by the 1846 Oregon Treaty. The letter is incomplete.
Photograph of Thomas Falconer wearing judge's robes and a wig, seated next to a table with books. Handwritten text on the back says: "Thomas Falconer, Judge of County Court, August 1854." Falconer was a member of the 1841 Texan Santa Fe expedition.
Letter from Thomas Falconer to "My dear Austin" in London. The letter was written in the third month of Falconer's captivity and posted from San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The letter recounts how he became part of the Santa Fe Expedition in June 1841 and narrates his experiences during the expedition. Falconer states that he was falsely told that the expedition was for trade when in fact its purpose was to capture Santa Fe. The letter describes his companions; the decline of Santa Fe's importance for trade; problems with the route and guides; lack of food; a camp fire that becomes a prairie fire; buffalo; and Indian attacks, scalpings, and deaths. A typed transcript of this letter is also available via the Portal to Texas History.
