Elizabeth H. Schuh ("Lizzie"), possibly of Lime Rock, Pennsylvania, kept this composition notebook as a 12-14 year-old student, between 1891 and 1893. The volume includes short essays on etiquette and behavior, nature-related topics (such as bees and oranges), natural science, and geography. A portion of the notebook focuses on forms of correspondence and financial receipts, grammar, and memorization. Other essays focus on prominent figures in the history of the United States, such as Andrew Jackson, Washington Irving, and Daniel Boone.
The etiquette compositions include "How to Be Polite", with general behaviors, such as being kind and unselfish, not standing behind people writing or reading, etc. Remarks on modesty include statements such as "Do not talk about dress" and "Do not soil your tongue with slang."
Content on letter writing includes her exercises in drafting generic correspondence, notes for seeking employment, and copies of letters that she may have sent out on relationships, and management of business and the household.
The volume has color, printed covers showing three students at desks in a classroom, one writing with a dip pen; its title is "Hawthorne Composition. No. 774. 'U.S. Mail' Series", J. C. Blair Manufacturing Stationer Huntingdon, Pa. A blackboard on an easel shows a trotting horse, marked "Composition on the HORSE". The inside covers include a printed biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
