The East Harlem Protestant Parish (EHPP) was an interdenominational ministry seeking to provide leadership in the development of community life, and was an excellent example of an ecumenical ministry in a local, inner-city setting. The collection contains documents and photographs of the churches, individuals, programs, and committees of the EHPP.

This collection includes nine letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson as well as letters of Louis Agassiz, Amos Bronson Alcott, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, John Lothrop Motley, Charles Sumner, and John Greenleaf Whittier. In addition, there are two incomplete manuscripts by Emerson and one document from the Liverpool Custom-house signed by Nathaniel Hawthorne as Consul for the United States. The collection also includes the corrected typescript, index, and page and galley proofs for Thomas Franklin Currier, A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (New York, 1953) which was edited by Professor Tilton. Also, some early correspondence and photographs of the Tilton family and friends. There are letters from the actors Annie Louise Ames, Richard J. Dillon, and Hans L. Meery to Tilton's grandfather, Bernard Paul Verne, as well as photographs, tintypes, and daguerreotypes of the Verne family and friends.

Papers of Howe, including family, personal, and professional correspondence; bills and receipts; photographs, itineraries, and brochures of his numerous American and European trips; four diaries for the years 1901, 1905, 1909, 1910; sermons, scripture readings, and other materials related to his ministry; addresses and writings; Howe-Barber genealogical materials, including galley proofs for his biography JEDIAH BARBER.