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Primarily correspondence to and from Biddle, but also includes correspondence to and from Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Jr., Benjamin N. Duke, Sarah P. Duke, Angier Buchanan Duke, Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, Nicholas Duke Biddle, and Duke University administrators, board members, and faculty. There is a significant amount of correspondence from Duke family business managers related to her finances and correspondence from her to Duke University related to her philanthropy. Some legal papers related to financial transactions are interspersed. There are also files specifically for the many condolences addressed to her on the deaths of her brother, father, and mother.

Includes personal and professional letters written to and from Eugenia Bradsher Newbold, Nathan Carter Newbold, Mabel Wooten and others. The letters document the courtship between Nathan Carter Newbold and his first wife Mabel Wooten, whom he married in 1900, as well as his later marriage to Eugenia Bradsher. These personal letters reveal the day-to-day experiences of the authors including their affection for one another. Much of the correspondence written to Nathan Carter Newbold is made up of appreciation letters from public school officials who wrote to Newbold upon his retirement. Other correspondence documents Newbold's professional networks (including connections to Trinity College) and depicts his activity within the North Carolina public school system as an administrator.

The correspondence consists of both incoming and outgoing letters that, although numerous, are not a complete file. These business letters date between 1913 and 1933, and are relatively abundant for 1917, 1919-1924, 1926, 1928, and 1930-1932. Since Smith was a middleman, his correspondence reveals aspects of the problems, not only of wholesalers, but also of the miners and shippers of coal and, on the other side, the consumers. The business began about 1911. In 1919 it handled 185 cars of coal between Januarary and September. Coal was purchased directly from the mines for spot cash. Letters about the nature and history of the business include those of: Sept. 20, 1919: April 9, 14, 1920; Feb. 27, 1922; and April 15, 1926.

The correspondence series contains primarily greeting and Christmas cards sent to Wylanta during her lifetime. The bulk of the correspondence is from the late 1920s. These notes are addressed to Wylanta according to her current married surname and generally express holiday greetings, well wishes, and, occasionally, thank her for gifts or sympathy sentiments received, invite her to weddings and other events, or request charitable gifts. Many of these greeting cards have no handwritten notes other than a signature. More in-depth are a handful of letters between Wylanta and her sister, Hettie (primarily from 1900-1925, Hettie Rochelle Blankenship lived 1893-1979), her future husband, Perry Elridge, and several other female friend correspondents. Topics addressed in these notes including current events such as World Wars I and II, love, business and property rental issues, Wylanta's winter home in Miami Beach, Durham society gossip, and family matters. There are also a small number of letters from merchants in response to Wylanta's requests for purchases. From 1923 there is a large amount of correspondence and condolence letters related to Wylanta's car accident in Nice, France, after which her husband, Isaac R. Strayhorn, died from injuries sustained. The correspondence series is organized chronologically.

Farley's professional correspondence contains letters from school superintendents as well as college professors and presidents, such as Rollo G. Reynolds, Fred Engelhardt, Uel W. Lamkin, Florence Hale, Thomas W. Nadal, Willis A. Sutton, and Eldo L. Hendricks. Persons prominent in the National Education Association, such as Willard E. Givens and William G. Carr, also corresponded with Farley, as well as the editors Bernard L. Johnson and Frank A. Weld; the Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission Frieda B. Hennock; George H. Adams, a newspaper reporter; and Franklin D. Roosevelt's son James.

Mostly letters from Gotham's family and female friends, with many of the latter being evangelical in nature and including letters mailed from a Honduran missionary station.