The heart of the collection documents Thomas D. Burrall's career as an inventor. Present are eight U. S. Patent Certificates, complete with much technological detail and, in four cases, drawings for a clover seed cleaning and hulling machine, 1923; a thrashing and winnowing machine for wheat or small grain, 1830; a cook stove, 1835; a threshing machine, 1832/1837; a reaping and mowing machine, 1856; and a corn shredder, 1863, for which a metal scale model and an advertising card are also included. In four cases, the patent certificates are signed by historic figures: James Monroe, John Q. Adams, or Andrew Jackson. Three diplomas, from Union College, Schenectady, NY and Yale, New Haven, CT, document Burrall's academic career. An 1850 listing of Yale graduates show that Burrall's was an old Yale family with graduates in 1771, 1781, and 1826. Also present is Burrall's appointment as an attorney in New York in 1810 and two books owned by Burrall: Cowper's poems and the biography of a Litchfield, CT missionary. Also included is ancillary material on a Burrall family ancestor, John Howell Wells: a Wells' family tree, an 1837 public land sale document to Margaret Mott, Ontario County, NY, two Rev War-period appointments, and an indenture of Apprenticeship between two Geneva, Ontario County, NY men.