The collection consists of letters written to Arthur Barry by his sons H. Brewster Barry and H. Pomeroy Barry, other relatives, and friends. There is also correspondence with the officials of the schools the boys attended, as well as letters concerning the property Barry owned, and his financial and business affairs. The rest of the collection includes Barry's private journals, personal financial and tax records, and the reports and correspondence of the charities and clubs with which he was affiliated. The correspondence and records of the East Side Savings Bank, the Community Savings Bank, and the Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Company make up the balance of the collection.

Cotton's 15 nonconsecutive manuscript pocket diaries for the period from 1850 to 1877. The diaries outline his life and travels. The entries for the Civil War years are especially interesting. He often describes the capital's fear of enemy invasion, recent nearby incursions, troop movements, and the general preoccupation with all aspects of the war. He called on President Lincoln, attended his second inauguration, and notes the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation. He describes the capital's joyous mood at the fall of Richmond and the gloom over the assassination of Lincoln. He attended the military court to see the conspirators. Later volumes talk about Pension Bureau affairs and his health and that of his family.

Dawn Powell (1896-1965) was an American author of novels, plays, and short stories. The collection includes address books, appointment books, books, clippings, correspondence, diaries, ephemera, family materials, manuscripts, notes, notebooks, photographs, programs, research files, reviews, scrapbooks, sketches and drawings.

The Eastwood-Bigelow Family Papers includes letters written to and from the Eastwood-Bigelow family members and friends, and are chiefly personal in nature. Included are letters written by Albert Bigelow Paine and Lewis Nathaniel Chase, as well as letters written about the Civil War and trips to California and Europe. Also in the collection are family financial papers, diaries, account books, invitations and calling cards, photographs, newspaper clippings, literary items and recipes.

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs and printed material of the English poet and critic, Edmund Blunden, documenting his personal and professional activity. Blunden's letters to his second wife, Sylva Norman, and his secretary, Aki Hayashi, are particularly well represented. Also included are many letters addressed to Blunden by eminent literary figures such as John Betjeman, George Orwell, Siegfried Sassoon, Stephen Spender, and Henry Williamson. Other literary correspondents are Adrian Bell, Joyce Cary, Richard Church, C. Day Lewis, Walter de la Mare, Graham Greene, H.D., William Plomer, Kathleen Raine, and Leonard Woolf. A substantial portion of the cataloged correspondence contains drawings, verse fragments and poems by Blunden which have been analyzed. Also present are eleven of Blunden's diaries, 1936-1967, which contain drafts of a number of poems. In addition, the collection contains a small number of autograph manuscripts of Edmund Blunden's literary works.

Personal and professional papers of Stedman, including correspondence, letter books, diaries, poetry manuscripts, scrapbooks, photographs, and genealogical materials for the Stedman and Dodge families. Correspondence and manuscripts of his mother, Elizabeth Clementine Dodge Stedman Kinney (1810-1889), poet and diarist, and of his granddaughter, Laura Stedman Gould (1881-1941), author and editor. Also, editions of Stedman's LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE including printed materials relating to the marketing; and an album of Civil War photographs by Mathew Brady, inscribed by the photographer to Laura H.W. Stedman as well as additional loose photographs by Brady.

The Ellwanger and Barry Papers includes the records of Ellwanger and Barry Nursery to 1918, including correspondence, order books, sketchbooks, stock record books, catalogs, price lists, inventories, and account books; records of Ellwanger and Barry Realty Company to 1963, including financial and legal papers, account books, payroll records, and blueprints for houses on the Ellwanger and Barry tract. Also business and personal correspondence, account books, and financial records of Patrick Barry, Charles P. and Julia Wald Barry, Bernard and Harriet Barry Liesching, and Arthur A. Barry, including much information about Rochester banks and civic organizations. Also family photographs and scrapbooks; memorabilia; diaries of Patrick Barry, 1857-72; and record of soldiers' bounties, 1862-1863.

The Ellwanger Family Papers includes the letters, diaries, scrapbooks, personal financial papers, etc. of George Ellwanger, his wife Cornelia (Brooks) Ellwanger, and his children and grandchildren. Box 3 contains correspondence to Helen and Margaret Ellwanger (daughters of Edward S. and Leah Cresswell Ellwanger) variously addressed to them individually and jointly. Their correspondents include: Gertrude Jekyll, Marianne Moore, Gertrude Herdle Moore, William Robinson, and Fletcher Steele. Letters from the following have been indexed: Patrick Barry, Algernon Sidney Crapsey, George Eastman, David Jayne Hill, Henry O'Rielly, Mrs. Caroline (Erickson) Perkins, and Charles Sprague Sargent.

The papers relate chiefly to the business, financial, real estate, military, civic and personal activities of Nicholas Fish. There are letters from various military figures concerning army provisions during the Revolution, letters relating to lands given to Fish for his services during the war, twenty letters from various individuals to George Clinton (1739-1812), and ten letters to DeWitt Clinton. The Hamilton Fish letters deal with business matters of his father, Nicholas, after his death. There are a few personal letters from several family members and a diary of Nicholas Fish from 1784. The documents consist of real estate and financial matters of the family as well as various petitions on matters of a civic nature

The Hastings Horticultural Papers provide insight into the business of setting up a nursery in Chicago, along with much information regarding the various types of trees and plants shipped westward from Rochester.