This collection consists of a photocopied typescript ([27] leaves) of the reminiscences of Harriet Eliza Williams Lathrop, a native of New York who, during the 1880s, lived with her husband (William Arthur Lathrop) in Tazewell County, Virginia from 1881 to 1884 while the latter was employed by the Southwest Virginia Improvement Company to oversee the opening of the Pocahontas Coal Field and the building of the town of Pocahontas. Included is a foreword, written by Lathrop's daughter, Helen Lathrop Thompson, in 1948 (Lathrop's reminiscences seem to have been written around 1936).

Lathrop's reminiscences commence with the couple's arrival in Dublin, Virginia on November 21, 1881. From there, Lathrop describes the couple's stops in Pearisburg and Princeton, before reaching their destination in Tazewell County, where they initially boarded with the Moore family.

Lathrop documents her interactions with local inhabitants (re-creating the dialogue in dialect), the couple's diet and living quarters; and her daily housekeeping routine. She also notes her husband's activities in overseeing the building of the town and the opening of the coal mines. She describes the initial development of the town of Pocahontas and the 1884 Laurel Mine explosion that killed 114 miners. Lathrop's reminiscences end around June, 1884, with the couple leaving Pocahontas for Snow Shoe, Pennsylvania, where William Lathrop had accepted a position as superintendent of the bituminous department of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company.