I can't not rescue things like this, to ensure they are shepherded into the future one way or another. I believe the owner was a Deborah Dunning, who was responsible for writing many of the poems in it, with contributions as well from other Dunnings and friends. Much of the content relates to friendship, and also farewells of various sorts, with plenty about God, and nature, and marriage, and death, too. One page features the names of Deborah Dunning and Eliza A. Cotton in fraktur writing, and for the most part, with a little effort, almost all of it is readable. All together quite a lovely, tender thing I think, providing a good sense of the sorts of sentiments that surrounded a young woman in the early 1840s.

6 7/8" x 4 1/2". 16 pages filled front and back plus covers. The front and back cover have both come loose from the hand-stitched spine, but the rest of the pages remain bound. My photos, which picture a handful but not all pages, are not great--it is brighter and clearer than appears here.  Paper is not especially fragile or brittle.