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.

This collection consists of the personal, business, and family papers of Edmund Lyon (1855-1920), a noted Rochester inventor, humanitarian, philanthropist, and manufacturer. It includes family and business correspondence, diaries, notebooks, manuscripts of books and articles, financial records, photographs and memorabilia of Lyon, his wife Carolyn Hamilton (Talcott) Lyon, Harriet E. Hamilton (her aunt), and a few other members of the family.

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 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.

The collection consists of correspondence, business records, ledgers and account books, notebooks and diaries, and blue prints.

The collection of George Eastman's correspondence consists of over 700 letters. The first letter by him is dated November 20, 1864 and the last March 11, 1932. A little over half of the letters are personal ones to his mother and niece. Occasionally there are references in these letters to business affairs, especially in the early letters to his mother. There is a sprinkling of business letters, both to Mr. Eastman and to others by him. The rest of the collection is made up of 75th (1929) and 77th (1931) birthday greetings (including ones in 1929 from President Herbert Hoover and Thomas A. Edison), and "thank you" letters from friends to whom he had sent copies of his book, Chronicles of an African Trip, published privately in 1927, and of his biography, George Eastman, by Carl W. Ackerman, which was published in 1930.

The Hooker Family Papers, 1790 to 1963 are arranged in five sections: correspondence, 1820 to 1930; financial and legal papers, 1790 to 1920; diaries and petty cash books, 1852 to 1926; miscellaneous papers, 1820 to 1963; and photograph albums, ca 1860's - 1890's. Sixteen of the twenty-seven boxes contain correspondence.

Primarily a collection of correspondence, business papers, diaries, journals, essays, etc., of Horatio Gates Warner (1801-1876) and his immediate family.

Letters to and from the Huntington-Hooker family members and friends, chiefly personal in nature. Included are letters written by Albert Huntington and Horace Hooker during the Civil War, and their Civil War papers and documents; letters from Harriet Beecher Stowe and information on the Stowe Memorial Window which was installed in the church at Mandarin, Florida through the efforts of Susan Huntington Hooker; letters from Blanchette Hooker (Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III), Adelaide Hooker (Mrs, John P. Marquand), Elon Huntington Hooker and Frank Huntington. Also in the collection are diaries, survey maps, deeds, indentures, wills, mortgages, family financial papers; newspaper clippings about Rochester history and the Huntington-Hooker families, general clippings and articles from newspapers and magazines; articles and speeches by family members, cards, invitations; University of Rochester, Vassar and Cornell programs and bulletins; family scrapbooks, and miscellaneous memorabilia.