{"value"=>"<p>Letters and invoices are primarily from aid societies, with some from individual donors, and concern supply shipments to the WCAR and their contents. Items were originally glued into 26 letterbooks, usually in the order they were received. Letterbooks were numbered by the WCAR, but the original numbering of first 6 volumes has been lost; these have been placed in chronological order. Items were usually filed by date of shipment receipt, and include the date received and the shipment number written at the top by WCAR personnel. These dates and numbers generally correspond to those in the receiving books. In addition, the correspondence registers below list these receipt dates and shipment numbers for each aid society. Early items, circa 1861, have a slightly different system in place; dates found in receiving books and registers may be those of the original item or of the WCAR's acknowledgment.</p> <p>Date ranges of letterbooks are taken from the original dates of items, and not date of shipment receipt. Some follow-up letters from aid societies regarding individual shipments were interfiled by the WCAR under the date of shipment received rather than the item's original date. Many items are undated.</p> <p>Letters and invoices in letterbooks 1-2 and 4-17 are numbered within each, most in a reverse numerical order and a reverse, roughly chronological order. Letterbooks 1 and 4 are in a rough, forward chronological order; letterbook 7 is in a forward numerical and chronological order. In most of these letterbooks, many items do not have numbers written on them, but they are indexed under the adjacent number, which may precede or follow it.</p> <p>Letterbook 15 has numbered items, in reverse order, with several unnumbered at the end of the sequence. Numbers originally appeared on letterbook tabs, which have been removed. Numbers written directly on the first sixty items do not necessarily correspond to those assigned on the index. There are some gaps in numbering.</p> <p>Letterbooks 3 and 18-26 contain unnumbered items that are in roughly reverse chronological order. Letterbook 26 is found under City Receipts.</p> <p>Indexes for letterbooks with numbered items are alphabetical by first letter of location of aid society or donor; some also contain a few surnames. Indexes for letterbooks with unnumbered items are blank. Letterbook 6 has no index.</p>"}