The letters were written by Lilbourn Meriwether in 1912, when he was a student at the University, to his father R. W. Meriwether in Paragould. The first was dated February 27 and the second February 28 and they were sent Special Delivery from Fayetteville. They describe the student uprising known as the X-Ray incident, in which students published a paper by that name. For a full account of this incident, see Robert A. Leflar's history of the University, The First Hundred Years, pp. 349-351.

The second letter also contains an accounting of some money Lilbourn Meriwether has spent for college expenses.