Correspondence, financial records, and legal documents of the Barnard family of Sheffield, Massachusetts. Frederick A. P. Barnard (1809-1889) was President of Columbia College from 1864-1889. His brother John Gross Barnard (1815-1882) was a career officer in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers who served as a Brevet Major General for the Union during the Civil War. Anna Eliza Barnard was John Gross Barnard's second wife, who raised four children and managed the family's affairs during her husband's last illness, 1879-1882. Augustus Porter Barnard, the son of John G. Barnard and his first wife, was a mining engineer.

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.

Correspondence, manuscripts, memoranda, receipts, certificates, financial and legal documents, envelopes, clippings, pamphlets, and other printed materials dealing with social and family relationships, the sons' education, professions, and military careers, the Mexican-American War and the Civil War, real estate and financial matters, and with the deaths and bequests of various family members. Among the cataloged correspondents are: Alexander Hamilton, John Church Hamilton, Gen. Schuyler Hamilton, Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll, Charles Augustus Peabody, Gen. J. Fred Pierson, Gen. Winfield Scott, Martin Van Buren, and a manuscript by George Washington.

John Jay II was a graduate of Columbia college and an abolitionist. This collection includes letters, legal and financial documents, newspaper clippings, writings, photographs, circulars, and pamphlets.

Correspondence files of Roberts Brothers, pertaining to all departments, editorial, production, advertising, and sales. Also, some miscellaneous letters and documents, unrelated to Roberts Brothers, which deal with various legal matters, including those of Frederick D. Ely and of William A. Dunn, from 1838 until 1932, and letters to the Secretary of Harvard University from 1900 to 1907.