Joseph H. Hanson (1820-1858) was a farmer in St. Georges Hundred near Delaware City, Delaware. The volume is a combined ledger and memorandum book covering the operation of Hanson's farm and the employment of tenants and/or farm laborers. There are pages for the accounts of individuals employed, mostly boys and young white men but also some women and some African Americans, with lists of chores performed.

Over half the mushrooms in the United States are grown in and around the town of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, which proudly calls itself the mushroom capital of the world. This oral history collection brings together interviews with individuals whose experiences capture the many different kinds of work and knowledge involved in mushroom cultivation, harvesting, packing, distribution, and marketing, and how those processes have changed over time.

The account book, internal evidence suggests, belonged to William Hitchcock (fl. 1800-1825) and was used to record his earnings and activities as a laborer in the Connecticut Valley between New Haven, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts.