- Charlotte Browne was matron of the general hospital in North America. Her diary, 1754-1757, describes a voyage from London to Virginia on board the ship London laden with hospital supplies as part of an expedition of thirteen transports, three ordnance ships, and two convoys carrying the 44th and 48th regiments to America. The diary includes accounts of Braddock's campaign in Virginia, Maryland, Philadelphia, and New York. At the end are some financial notes dated 1763 to 1766. This diary is probably a fair copy transcribed by Browne from her original notes and is bound in a flap binding of green stained vellum stamped in gold.
- Mahlon Day (1790-1854) was a Quaker, publisher of children's books, printer, and bookseller in New York City. This is a contemporary copy of a diary kept by Day while on a tour of the West Indies (November 1839-April 1840) in the company of Joseph John Gurney, the English Quaker philanthropist, minister, and writer. In most of the places they visited, they did considerable sightseeing, held religious services for all faiths, and were entertained by many residents. They were particularly interested in education, religion, and the condition of the Black population, especially on the free islands as compared to those that still permitted slavery. Day also includes many rhymes composed by Gurney to commemorate particular occasions. Persons whom they visited include Sir W.M.B.G. Colebrooke and Nathaniel Gilbert of Antigua, and John and Maria Candler of Jamaica.
- Joseph Goodwin was a plantation manager in Cuba originally from Hudson, N.Y. This diary was presumably kept by Goodwin, although it may have been kept by his brother. After leaving home in Hudson, N.Y., Goodwin worked for Gen. George De Wolf, first in Bristol, Rhode Island for a few months and then on De Wolf's plantations near Matanzas, Cuba as a manager or overseer. The plantations grew mainly coffee, although other crops are mentioned. The crops were worked by enslaved labor. The diary entries are mainly routine and record weather, plantation activities, people met, and local news. They often mention George and William De Wolf. While in Cuba, Goodwin stayed first at the home of John Line and later at the plantations Buena Esperanza and Arca de Noe. Some pages of the diary are missing.
- Untitled poem attributed to Jupiter Hammon (1711-circa 1806), a Black man enslaved by the Lloyd family, proprietors of the Manor of Queens Village in what is now the Village of Lloyd Harbor, N.Y. It was composed as a tribute to Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for challenging the authority of Puritan ministers. The poem is part of the Townsend family papers, and was written down by Phebe Townsend, youngest of Robert Townsend's three sisters. The Townsends interacted with the Lloyd family. Inscribed at the foot of page [3]: “Compos[e]d by Jupiter Hammon, A Negro Belonging to Mr. Joseph Lloyd of Q[u]eens Villiage [sic] on Long Island. August the 10th 1770. Phebe Townsend.”
- Draft in John Jay's hand of Federalist Number 64, originally published on March 5, 1788 in the Independent Journal. It bore the number 63 in the newspaper version, but was renumbered 64 in the first collected edition, published 22 March 1788. Comparison with the published version shows little change in the substance of the argument for the constitutional provisions for senatorial approval of treaties. Changes in organization and wording are substantial. Jay's draft speaks of "the Convention" making certain provisions while the published essay substitutes "the Constitution." Jay's justification of the election of Senators by state legislatures is omitted in the final, published paper. In answering objections to making treaties the supreme law of the land, Jay, in his draft, cites examples of British constitutional law; in his published version, the citations refer to colonial and state practice. Jay's concluding paragraph asking for a fair trial for a constitutional plan with theoretical merits is omitted in the published essay.
- Letter book, New York City, August 28, 1807-July 29, 1814, containing copies of letters sent (and a few received) by Stevens as Major-General of Artillery, New York State Militia. The subjects of the letters are military matters and the War of 1812, and the correspondents include Solomon Van Rensselaer, Jacob Morton, and Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins., Major-General of Artillery, New York State Militia.
- A record book, dated 1791-1798 and 1800-1806, kept by Abraham Varick of New York City. The book contains copies of letters to merchants in England and Germany and lists of merchandise ordered from them. The letters discuss business matters, including the difficulties of transatlantic trade in wartime and the risk of seizures of ships. Commodities ordered are mainly textiles and metal goods (scissors, cutlery, hand tools, etc.)., Abraham Varick was a New York City dry goods merchant, and brother of jurist and politician Richard Varick.
- Notebook, 1772-1774, of Alexander Watson, a landowner and resident of New York City who was nephew and heir of John Watson (1685-1768). Contains receipts, lists of deeds and properties, and a note of a lease assigned to him in New York to build a church; notes on taxes; excerpts from "A new system of agriculture, by a Country Gentleman," with references to other writers on agriculture; prayers; versified psalms; music for the "Old Hundredth" and "God Save the King"; secular poems and songs; moral, religious and economic reflections; and genealogical notes.
- Account book, 1856-1858, kept by the prominent slave trading firm of Bolton, Dickens & Co. of Lexington, Kentucky, with branches in Memphis, Charleston, Natchez, and New Orleans. It chiefly records people purchased and sold by the firm, with entries giving the names of enslaved people, purchase and selling price, profit, names of suppliers, and occasional remarks. Some persons involved in the firm's recorded transactions were Washington Bolton, Isaac Bolton, Samuel Dickens, and the slave trader G.L. Bumpass. Of additional note is a copy of an 1857 letter to Isaac Bolton, probably written by his brother Washington Bolton while Isaac was in prison awaiting trial for the murder of slave dealer James McMillan of Kentucky following a dispute in Memphis concerning McMillan's sale to Bolton of an enslaved 16-year old boy who was later revealed to be free, and other related documents. The volume was later employed as a day book by "B.B.W." (possibly B.B. Wadell) and contains accounts for the year 1865.
- Castle Thunder was a former tobacco warehouse in Richmond, Va., used to house prisoners during the Civil War. Three handwritten pages of lyrics entitled "Castle Thunder song," undated, written by an unnamed prisoner at Castle Thunder, circa 1863. Lyrics describe life and conditions in the prison., Castle Thunder was a former tobacco warehouse in Richmond, Va., used to house prisoners during the Civil War.
- On the occasion of General Lafayette’s visit to New York City in 1824 the New York Common Council prepared this commemorative volume (1824-1825) containing transcripts of resolutions and addresses of various organizations as a duplicate of the volume presented to Lafayette. The volume includes numerous specimens of decorative and figural penmanship by Isaac F. Bragg and Christopher Hunt, elaborate page borders and vignettes, two small oval portraits of George Washington and General Lafayette by Henry Inman and Thomas Cummings, and four full page pen and ink wash drawings, executed by Charles Burton, depicting the United States Capitol building, Fort Lafayette (N.Y.), New York City Hall, and the construction of the Erie Canal. Text includes copies of addresses and resolutions prepared by the Common Council and various other organizations, including members of the New York Bar, the Society of the State Cincinnati, and the faculty of Columbia College. Bound in gold tooled morocco with silk doublures, signed at foot of spine by J.H. Sackmann, bookbinder, N.Y.
- Account book, January 18-May 6, 1749, kept aboard the sloop Rhode Island while on a voyage to Africa to transport enslaved Africans to America for her owners, Philip Livingston and Sons, New York City. Peter James was shipmaster. Included are accounts for the purchase of enslaved people, and goods like gold, for sales of rum and other provisions to the crew, various expenses, the purchase of provisions, an inventory of goods delivered to Captain David Lindsey, a record of the deaths of those held captive on the ship, and other incidents aboard the Rhode Island, etc. The trading was carried out on various locations between contemporary Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast.