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 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.

Boxes contain business and legal papers, including wills, deeds, mortgages, birth and marriage certificates; lists of books and family possessions brought from England; clippings; genealogical and biographical material; unpublished bits of writing of several members of the family; tintypes, photographs, framed portraits; books, postcard album, and other memorabilia. One box contains family correspondence.

The collection includes the personal papers and correspondence of the Bradford King family of Rochester. Among the papers are the diaries of Bradford King, the son of Gideon King who settled near Rochester in 1797. Bradford left this area after his father's death in 1798, but returned many years later. The diaries cover the period from June, 1811 to April, 1874. During some years the entries are scattered or very brief; in others the notes are voluminous. Included in the correspondence are four volumes of letters from Bradford King to his brother Moses King. Also in the collection are the diaries and personal papers of Moses Bradford King, son of Bradford King, who was a prominent Rochester druggist. Moses Bradford King wrote and published a pamphlet which advocated changes in the calendar for the twentieth century. Much of the correspondence consists of letters written between the two daughters of Moses B. King, Ella G. King and Ada M. King. For a time Ella and Ada King operated the King Seminary for Young Ladies and Children in Rochester. When the school closed, Ella King went west and taught in an Indian school in South Dakota. Ada remained in Rochester where she tutored high school and college students. In 1944, at the age of 80, she enrolled for courses at the University of Rochester extension school, becoming the University's oldest co-ed. She died at the age of 100 in 1964.

Finks' papers collected in Rare Books/Special Collections begin with writings by David Finks and then move to documentation of Finks' life and work, including material and some correspondence relating to Catholic Council of Urban Ministries, Campaign for Human Development, and the Downtown (Rochester) Community Forum. Next are Finks' personal records which are combined elements of both a journal and a scrapbook. Contained in binders, they are a combination of journal entries, articles, letters, cards, flyers, programs, and anything else that was meaningful to him. There are a few gaps, but the journals cover from 1985-2007. Finally, the last few boxes are articles and letters regarding people and issues, largely religious, of interest to Finks as well as personal correspondence and photographs.

This collection, the Ward-Macomber Family Papers, 1829-1974, contains material relating to Levi Alfred Ward's son Levi Frederick Ward (1842-1907) and his family. On October 13, 1864 Levi Frederick Ward married Alice Smith (1844-1913). They had three children. Levi Smith Ward (1864-1926) married Florence Yates (1871-1931) in 1895. They had one son, Levi Yates Ward (b. 1904), who later changed his name to Andrew Lee Yates Ward. Laura Page Ward (1867-1959) married Francis Selden Macomber (1867-1956), a Rochester lawyer, also in 1895. Frederic Kemp Ward (1876-1910) married Hortense Thomas (1878-1909), the daughter of the architect John R. Thomas (1848-1901). Frederic Kemp and Hortense Ward had two children, Frederic Kemp Ward, Jr. (b. 1904) and Caroline Allen Ward (b. 1905). After their parents died, the children lived with their aunt and uncle, Laura Page and Francis Selden Macomber.