The typescript, compiled by Borland's granddaughter Chloe Kearns, comprises a copy of Borland's reminiscences about his early life in Scotland and the lives of his children, apparently written on or after June 1882, and a copy of Borland's journal of his passage from Stewarton, East Ayrshire, to the United States of America, followed by a trip up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to St. Louis, in 1843. With photographs of John Borland and his wife Mary Borland, née Jamison, and genealogical information compiled by Kearns.