The collection consists of letters received by Alice Virginia Toomer and Fanny Wortley Toomer. Letters received by Alice Virginia Toomer include a series of Civil War-era courtship letters from Samuel Fisher Tenney during and immediately following his wartime service. Tenney's letters often comment on battles in which he participated, including Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run (Manassas), Sharpsburg (Antietam), and Gettysburg (where he was wounded). There are also several letters to Alice Virginia Toomer from unidentified correspondents. Letters received by Fanny Wortley Toomer are chiefly from "Angie" and "Annie" of Baltimore, Md., who appear to be Toomer's cousins. Letters focus primarily on family news and daily musings and were sent to Fanny Wortley Toomer when she was a college student in Alabama and when she resided in Portsmouth, Va. Also included is a photocopy of a 1973 article by E.B. Duffee Jr. published in the Georgia Historical Quarterly concerning the correspondence of Samuel Fisher Tenney and Alice Virginia Toomer. The article provides additional contextual information and transcriptions of many of the letters in this collection.
