Intimate correspondence between Russell Sturgis, American merchant at Canton, with his (second) wife Mary Greene (Hubbard) Sturgis at Macao. They discuss their own health and the health of their children, life in the foreign community in Macao and the pleasant but restricted life of the merchants in Canton. Some of the correspondence details the goods, particularly cloth and porcelain, that Russell was sending by boat to Macao; a letter of 1835 Feb. 18 includes a cloth sample for his wife's approval. There is little insight into Chinese culture or the interaction between the local and the foreign communities; tensions leading up to the outbreak of the Opium War are barely alluded to. A CD contains transcriptions for 98 letters (inquire of Curator of Manuscripts).
