The collection contains eleven letters written by Baron de Carondelet dating from 1794 to 1797 along with correspondence, newspaper clippings, and articles concerning Alonzo J. Tullock’s Louisiana history collection dating from 1895 to 2009. The collection is divided into two series: the Carondelet Series and the Tullock Series. The Carondelet Series is arranged chronologically; the Tullock Series is arranged alphabetically by type of document. Date gaps in the collection are as follows: 1795, 1798-1894, 1898-1900, 1902, 1904-1954, 1956-1973, 1975-2002, 2004-2006, and 2010-2021.

The Carondelet Series contains eleven original letters written by Baron de Carondelet when he served as governor of Louisiana in New Orleans dating 1794, and 1796 to 1797. Ten of the letters are in French addressed to “Monsieur Delassus” and one letter is a file copy of a letter in Spanish written to Don Pedro Marigny. Translations for the Carondelet-Delassus letters vary, numbering from one to three, none of which are identical. There is no translation for the Carondelet-Marigny letter. Due to the sensitive nature of the letters’ contents and to the presence of fold lines, it is assumed that they were transported in envelopes or some enclosure to maintain confidentiality. However, no envelopes accompany the letters. The greeting of each letter does not identify the recipient by name; the recipients’ names appear at the bottom left corner of the letters’ last page, near Carondelet’s closing signature. The letters also do not include the locations to which they were sent. The locations of the recipients noted on the following inventory are presumed from the appointed position each held and/or the location of their residences at the time the letters were written.

The May 1794 letter addressed to “Monsieur Delassus” is most likely written to Pierre Dehault Delassus, the father of Charles Dehault Delassus. Carondelet mentions the elder Delassus in several of his subsequent letters to Charles. The letter mentions the settlers who moved from Gallipolis, Ohio; crop failures at New Bourbon, which is where Pierre Delassus brought his family upon leaving Ohio; and discusses an expiring contract. Charles Dehault Delassus did not arrive in North America until 1794, therefore, it is likely this letter is written to his father, Pierre. In this letter Carondelet also mentions administrative issues in the Spanish colony, particularly the new Intendant, Francisco de Rendon, whom he believes has a secret mission to be carried out with Kentucky.

Most of the letters were written to Charles Dehault Delassus while he was post commander at New Madrid and date from 1796 to 1797. Carondelet wrote on a variety of many administrative and military topics, mentioning several people known to both men. He shared news of events in the colony and in Spain, sent instructions relating to settlements affected by the new Pinckney Treaty, and provided military orders in case of attack by English or American forces. Carondelet alerted Delassus to possible espionage rumors relating to Auguste de la Chaise, a Jacobin, and to the arrest and release of General George Collot for reconnoitering in Spanish territory without permission. He also instructed Delassus to check credentials of Frenchmen traveling in Louisiana. Carondelet sent guidelines for trade, for example ordering Delassus not to allow the native population to trade with the Americans, and discussed rebuilding the fort at New Madrid after a flood.

The Tullock Series contains articles and newspaper clippings about the Louisiana Purchase and correspondence about the Tullock collection dating from 1895 to 2009. After Tullock’s death in 1904, family members maintained the collection, replied to inquiries about the collection, and saved articles about colonial Louisiana and the Louisiana Purchase.

New Orleans antiquities dealer, Armand Hawkins, wrote to Tullock about documents relating to colonial Louisiana. In these letters, Hawkins explained how he acquired the documents that eventually comprised part of Tullock’s collection, including the Carondelet letters which were in a sealed box from the Delassus family. In his 8 February 1896 letter, Hawkins enclosed a translation of an official order of Gov. Laussat to Liet. Gov. Delassus dated 12 January 1804, instructing Delassus to relinquish Upper Louisiana to the United States (f.7).* He also explained that some of the letters written by Baron de Carondelet were addressed to Pierre Dehault Delassus. Hawkins’ letters dated 2 February 1896 and 8 September 1901 provide details regarding the provenance of the Delassus letters.

There is also correspondence with Walter B. Stevens, secretary of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, who wrote newspaper articles based on letters borrowed from Tullock’s collection (f.5), had facsimiles produced for the 1904 World’s Fair (f.10), and mentions translations. Most likely, Stevens produced one of the three translations available for most of the Carondelet letters (f.2-3). On 2 September 1901, Tullock included a four-page list of books in his collection relating to colonial Louisiana.

Several of the articles were published in The National Magazine in 1903, highlighting the 1904 World’s Fair, which celebrated the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. There is an address by St. Louis attorney James O. Broadhead, The Louisiana Purchase: Extent of Territory Acquired by the Purchase, that he sent to Tullock in 1897. There are also two newspaper articles dated 2003 and 2009.