Flora Adams Darling (1840–1910) was born on July 25, 1840. A descendant of Henry Adams, Darling's family settled in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1636. She married Colonel Edward Irving Darling on March 12, 1860, and went with him to live in Louisiana. He died of wounds received in battle on December 2, 1863. Her only son was Edward Erving Darling, a musician-composer, who died July 13, 1894. Mrs. Darling suffered from repeated attacks of malarial fever and, after 1876, from deafness. Her years of widowhood were spent writing letters, or memoirs of the Civil War, A Social Diplomat and other books.

From 1889 to 1896, her major interests and efforts were devoted to the founding of women's patriotic societies. Mrs. Darling's interest in organizing patriotic societies is illustrated by the rapid succession with which the societies followed each other: Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) founded October 11, 1890; Daughters of the Revolution (D.R.) founded June 18, 1891; Daughters of the United States of the War of 1812, founded January 8, 1892; founded because of disagreement over policies of the D. A. R., policies adopted over the protest of Mrs. Darling. Flora Adams Darling died on January 6, 1910. This collection is composed primarily of letters written to her during these years of controversy.