Flora's Dictionary

Flora's Dictionary cover

The copy of Flora's Dictionary containing the letters of E.W. Fuller from the Cox Family Papers.

The book in which E.W. Fuller wrote these letters was Flora's Dictionary by Elizabeth Washington Wirt (Baltimore: F. Lucas, Jr., 1837). This popular work included facts and quotations about flowers, with many color illustrations.

In his introductory note written at the front of the volume, Fuller explains that he received the book from an unknown benefactor, "the gift of a lady," while he was at St. James Hospital. The book was preserved by Fuller's family as a treasured record of Captain Fuller's last months, and was eventually donated to Washington State University as part of the Earl Blake Cox Family Papers (collection number: Cage 93).