The volume contains copies of O. F. Browning’s outgoing correspondence concerning his nursery and plant business. O. F. Browning was located at 7 Murray Street in New York City and later in Chatham, Columbia County, New York, Browning gives his precise location as Chatham 4 Corners. Browning was born in 1842 in Claverack, New York and died in 1878 in Chatham.

Browning did much of his business as a commission agent moving “car loads” of seedlings, plant cuttings, vines, around the northeast and Midwest. Grapes, vines of various types, currant cuttings, potatoes, apple seeds, pear, cherry, various maple and hemlock trees, elms, Kentucky coffee-trees, basswood, arbor vitae and other trees and products of the orchard and farm were all bought and sold via his connections with buyers, growers, orchardists, and arborists. Browning also purchased and sold cattle and poultry, he utilized all the transport options of the day, rail and steamship.

Browning’s letters to his suppliers and customers are detailed and precise, asking for specific discounts, commission rates, types of plants, requests for samples; he also on occasion tries to collect on overdue accounts and uses his sent documents as proof of agreed upon arrangements. Browning also had an additional side business as a middleman for agricultural publications and advertising copywriter, he also worked with printers and stationers for supply of seed packets and related paper items (see inlaid ephemeral materials).

The volume contains a 15 page section covering the “Proceedings of the Third Anniversary of the  Universal Peace Union in Dodworth Hall in New York March 14^th 1869…” Browning seems to have been a member, and kept a record of the proceedings either as a recording secretary or for his own purposes. This section contains a running account of the meeting, with a list of attendees, the prominent members of the national organization, including: Bryan J. Butts of Hopedale, Massachusetts, Elizabeth B. Chase, William Higby, Alfred H. Love, Sarah  E. Sommerby, Dr. Elijah Swackhammer Wolf of Colorado, Dr. Halleck and others. One of the notes in the volume states that “O.F. Browning, Sarah E. Sommerby and Zebulon Wright served as a committee on nominations of officers of the Society for the following year.” Browning gives details on petitions to Congress, discussions and comments of members, reported verbatim. The tragic loss of life resulting from the Civil War colored many of the impassioned statements recorded by Browning. There is at least one letter to Alfred H. Love. In the volume.

The Universal Peace Union was, according to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection: “The most radical and important peace organization to rise from the Civil War.”  “This militant band grew out of reaction against compromising tactics which the American Peace Society adopted during the Civil War. The new movement was launched at Providence, Rhode Island in 1866. Taking leading parts were Joshua P. Blanshard, Adin Ballou, Henry C. Wright, Alfred H. Love, and Lucretia Mott.”

The volume includes several related pieces of ephemera laid in, including a two page printed circular, measuring 8 ½ x 12 inches, “List of Agricultural & Horticultural papers,” which lists several dozen commercial farming and related publications in the United States, subscription and advertising rates for each. Browning offered to be a clearing house or broker: “… thus saving you much time, care and unnecessary labor…”, with wood engraved vignette, the verso contains a list of the agricultural and horticultural books on offer via Browning’s Exchange.

Also includes an 1873 printed Landlord’s Agreement between J. S. Steutenburgh and Oscar F. Browning for a “… Certain Dwelling house and Grounds at Hyde Park…” lists the terms, signed.