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The Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) was an aluminum mining and manufacturing company originally founded in 1902 as the Northern Aluminum Company. It is now part of Rio Tinto, headquartered in Montreal. James Buchanan Duke (1856-1925) was an American industrialist in tobacco and hydroelectric power based in Durham, N.C. and New York, N.Y. Collection consists of two photograph albums presented by the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) to Duke University that commemorate James B. Duke's trips to the Saguenay (1915) and Quebec (1925) regions of Canada and relate to Duke's involvement in the development of hydroelectric power and aluminum smelting plants there. The collection also includes a history of Duke's activities in the Saguenay region written by T.L. Brock (Assistant to the President at Alcan), along with some pamphlets about Alcan and the city of Arvida. Individuals depicted in the photographs include Andrew Mellon, Arthur Vining Davis, Richard B. Mellon, and William States Lee (J.B. Duke's hydroelectric engineer, designer of the Isle-Maligne and Beauharnois power stations). Companies referenced include Aluminum Company of America, Duke-Price Power Company, and Quebec Development Company.

Calling card (ANS), inscribed to Dr. Robert H. Wilkins.

Diploma of membership in the society, "Regia matritensis Academia". Bears seal of society and signatures of Ignatius Maria Ruiz, Joseph Mozinnus, Joseph Anthony a Capdeosta, Banares, and Salvadore X. Coronado.

The Aitken family was of Scottish descent. John Aitken, senior, lived in Rashiehill, Scotland. One of his sons, James Aitken, was eventually ordained as a Presbyterian minister in Elizabeth town (Elizabeth City), North Carolina. Collection comprises a letter written by James Aitken to his parents from Wilmingtown (Wilmington), North Carolina, on 1775 June 5, as well as a last will and testament for John Aitken, Senior, as recorded in 1793. In his letter, James describes local people as "genteel" and respected for their "education and good behaviour," and goes on to describe local planters and their various crops, long distances ridden, the situation for Presbyterians and his upcoming ordination and resettlement, his plans to obtain a plantation and purchase or hire slaves, preparations for war with Great Britain, and payment of his debts. In his will, John Aitken, Senior, names his son, John, as his successor, and outlines the distribution of his money, land, and property. The will is witnessed by Charles Lang and William Muirhead.

The Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize is awarded by Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies to visual artists and writers working on documentary projects. The collection houses the work of 16 documentarians, all winners of the Center for Documentary Studies Lange-Taylor Prize from 1996 to 2020: Chinen Aimi, Rob Amberg, Mary Berridge, Peter Brown, Steven Cozart, Jason Eskenazi, Michel Huneault, Misty Keasler, Katherine Yungyee Kim, Roger LeMoyne, Jim Lommasson, Deborah Luster, Dona Ann McAdams, Daniel Ramos, Amanda Russhell Wallace, and Donald Weber. Their portfolios total 139 color and black-and-white photographic prints, 2 illustrated publications, and 6 digital videos. The projects engage with a wide variety of topics: the culture of boxing gyms; the effects of highway construction in the Appalachian mountains of N.C.; the experiences of HIV-positive women; the changing culture and traditions of Jews in Azerbaijan; the lives of older schizophrenics institutionalized in the U.S.; the experiences of Mexican immigrants and their families in Chicago; "colorism," prejudice within one's own racial community based on relative skin hue; a French-Canadian community coping with environmental and social trauma caused by a train derailment; the people, cultures, and landscapes of the U.S. High Plains; the experiences of Korean families affected and separated by conflicts, borders, and cultural identities; grieving and family in an African American community; crime, prostitution, and addiction in Ukraine; the impact of colonizers on the island of Okinawa; a Guatemala city landfill and its inhabitants; portraits of incarcerated people in Louisiana; and the effects of war on the former Yugoslavia. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.

Letter (ALS) regarding an article submitted by Taylor to the "Athenaeum", a journal edited by Aikin.

3 letters (ALS), including a letter of recommendation for R. G. Barclay to the Physicians and Surgeons of St. Joseph's Hospital.

2 letters (ALS). The first, in German, to fellow zoologist Dr. Kaup of Darmstadt. The second, in French, to W. G. Abel, a musician who applied for a position at Agassiz's school for girls.

Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz (December 5, 1822 – June 27, 1907) was an American educator, and the co-founder and first president of Radcliffe College. Collection comprises an autograph, signed letter Elizabeth Cary Agassiz wrote to Dr. Thomas Hill on January 20 [1886] regarding his article on her husband published in the Unitarian Review in December 1885. Also includes a printed photograph of her.