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.

The collection consists of correspondence from patients and other doctors; bills for drugs, medical books and periodicals; receipts and patients' bills; correspondence relating to land speculations in Illinois and Michigan; day books and ledgers; and the sign from his office in Rochester.

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 of the Fortnightly Ignorance Club consist of two manuscript volumes containing minutes of the group's meetings, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and club budgets. The correspondence, between recording secretary Jenny Marsh Parker and notable women reformers (including Marie E. Zakrzewska and Susan B. Anthony), is interleaved in the volumes and indexed. The two volumes cover the periods 1881 to 1883 (volume 1) and 1886 to 1891 (volume 3) with a gap during the intervening years.

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.

Boxes 1-7 contain meeting minutes and lists of Board of Directors and Executive and Nominating committees. Boxes 8-11 describe the service programs established by the Service Overview Committees to carry out the mission of the organization. Boxes 12 and 13 contain financial reports, including endowment funds, guidelines and manuals for different sections of the organization. Box 14 contains photographs, annual reports, publications, and other miscellaneous ephemera.

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.

The collection contains minutes of meetings of the Board of Managers and Board of Directors, reports of Managers visiting the families of children in the school, financial records, legal documents, correspondence, and histories of the Industrial School.

The J. Haas & Son Company Papers includes mortgage and lease papers, customer invoices, business correspondence and account books. The collection's date range spans 1876-1912.