Travel journal and three memoirs written by members of the Morgan family and Henry A. Gardner.

The travel journal, written by George Cadogan Morgan while in Revolutionary France, describes the countryside of France, as well as some of the violence taking place in Paris during July of 1789. It is a contemporary copy with a map of Morgan's route, compiled from letters Morgan sent home almost every day. The biographical memoir written by Richard Price Morgan vividly depicts Morgan's voyage to America and following struggles to make his way in the developing nation. Morgan travelled through the Northeast and Midwest, often on foot with an Irish "tinker" and encountered Indians in the military camps where they were refugees. He attempted several trading expeditions which he describes in great detail, including the hard travel and price gouging which took place in various pioneer ports. His descriptions of railroad construction and expansion are particularly informative. He was involved in several aspects of the industry, from labor, surveying, and invention, to the politics and business practices that propelled it forward. His son George C. Morgan's memoir likewise describes life and work on the railroads in Illinois. The memoir of Henry A. Gardner, son of Morgan's business colleague and son-in-law Henry A. Gardner discusses his father's work, as well as his own life in Chicago from 1853 until the turn of the century.