Folded letter wrapper with pencilled identifying note, signed A.F.W.
Book 1, Page 116 ·1840–1855
Transcription
The outer fold of a letter sheet, lined paper, with creases dividing it into quarters. A wax-seal stain sits at the upper right. A pencilled identifying note in the compiler’s hand runs across the middle of the sheet. The address panel itself is not visible; faint show-through writing appears toward the lower center, and a small blind-embossed paper-maker’s mark (illegible monogram) sits at the lower right.
[Pencilled note in the compiler’s hand, center of sheet]: Letter to my grand mother Susan Barker from her mother Ellen Milliken Barker — my grand father Christopher Fitz Simons “H.L.” had been to “ask for Susan’s hand”. — A.F.W.
AI Notes
The outer fold of a letter sheet, lined paper showing crease lines and a wax-seal stain at the upper right. A pencilled identifying note in the compiler’s hand (Amy FitzSimons Walker, ‘A.F.W.’) runs across the middle of the sheet, identifying the enclosed letter as one from Ellen Milliken Barker to her daughter Susan Barker on the occasion of Christopher FitzSimons having ‘asked for Susan’s hand.’ A small blind-embossed paper-maker’s mark sits at the lower right; faint show-through writing is visible toward the lower center. The marriage of Susan Milliken Barker (1827–1900) and Dr. Christopher FitzSimons (3rd) (1826–1866) places the original letter in the late 1840s or early 1850s.
Annotation in the compiler’s hand. “A.F.W.” is Amy FitzSimons Walker (Mrs. James Pickens Walker), the album’s compiler — granddaughter of the Susan Barker and Christopher FitzSimons named in the note. The letter contents are on the next page.
Faint show-through writing visible in the lower center of the sheet, illegible.