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The bulk of the letters cover the years before the American Civil War when John Emory Bryant (JEB) and Emma Spaulding were in Maine, during the Civil War when JEB was at Port Royal and Hilton Head, S.C., during Reconstruction in Georgia (1865-1887), and the remaining years in New York (1888-1900). The letters document JEB's life as a soldier, his courtship and relationship with his wife Emma Spaulding, his involvement in the Republican Party, temperance organizations, the Freedman's Bureau, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as his relationships with other politicians such as President Ulysses S. Grant, James Atkins, Governor Rufus Bullock, and Foster Blodgett, including prominent African-American politicians of the time such as Henry McNeal Turner and William Anderson Pledger.

Letters to and from friends, family members, editors, publishers, and soldiers Whitman met during his time as a nurse in military hospitals in and around Washington, D. C. primarily during the Civil War. However, correspondence is dated both during and after the war.

The correspondence in the collection relates in part to Gould's service in the 1st Maine Regiment and its successors, the 10th Maine Regiment and the 29th Maine Regiment and contains descriptions of the situation in Washington, D.C., 1861; guard duty on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Relay, Maryland, 1861-1862; the battle of Winchester, 1862; the battle of Cedar Mountain, 1862; two fragments from field notes on the Maryland campaign and the battle of Antietam, 1862; the Red River expedition, 1864; operations in the Shenandoah Valley, 1864; and occupation duty in Darlington, South Carolina, 1865.

The correspondence series contains 136 letters (603 pages) primarily written between 1863-1892 by Catharine Porter Noyes, her sister Ellen (Nellie) Noyes Balch, and Ellen's husband F. V. (Frances Vergines, known as "Frank") Balch, along with a few by other family members. Another writer, Catharine's cousin Mary, joined her as a teacher of freed slaves in South Carolina. Includes letters written in 1933 by artist Emily E. Balch to Richard Noyes Stone.

Handwritten and typed letters to and from Brasher concerning church business, personal business, family news, and the administration of John H. Snead Seminary and Central Holiness University. Arranged chronologically. The new accession includes many letters to/from John Lakin Brasher to James H. Brasher. The letters provide a snapshot of James' early life, his school work at Central Holiness University, on Altheia, and his social life. Later letters focus on James' career in the ministry. Other family members also figure greatly in the letters: Minnie, Leona, Luther, Eunice, Julius, friends, and "brothers" and "sisters" in the ministry. The letters continue unabated until John Lakin Brasher's death in 1971. Also includes restricted material, mainly correspondence between Minnie Moore Brasher and John Lakin Brasher, as well as other family members.

The Correspondence series has been arranged alphabetically by correspondent, with general correspondence arranged chronologically at the end of the series. The series also includes Warrington Dawson's diplomatic dispatches and assorted diplomatic papers from Alphonse Pageot.