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lists of books and family possessions brought from England; clippings; genealogical and biographical material; unpublished bits of writing of several members of the family; tintypes, photographs, framed portraits; books, postcard album, and other memorabilia.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.

The collection includes the correspondence and other papers of William Channing Gannett (1840-1923), who was a Unitarian minister in St. Paul, Minnesota (1877-1883) and Rochester, N.Y. (1889-1908). The correspondence to and from Mr. Gannett includes letters from Jane Addams, Abigail May Alcott, Susan B. Anthony, Samuel Longfellow, Elihu Root, Alphonso and William Howard Taft, Booker T. Washington, Frank Lloyd Wright and many Unitarian leaders of the late 1800s and early 1900s. There are also letters relating to the Western Unitarian Controversy, the education of the freedmen at Port Royal, the temperance crusade, Unity magazine, Unitarian church organization and membership, and to the editing of Unity Hymns and Chorals by Mr. Gannett and Frederick L. Hosmer. About 400 letters, dated 1875-1912, were added to the collection by Charles H. Lyttle and relate to the Western Unitarian Controversy.

The collection includes the Corporation Counsel papers, business and personal correspondence, and family papers of Colonel William Hubbell Emerson of Rochester, retired Corporation Counsel for the city.

Family papers and correspondence to and from the William Perkins Cross family members and friends, chiefly personal in nature. Included is some information about the Daniel E. Cross Company Boot & Shoe Patterns, Rochester, N.Y. Also in the collection are family and business financial papers, bills, statements, wills, diaries, account books, notebooks.