Letters of a dutiful child to his parents Richard Bache and Sarah Franklin Bache, and to his grandfather, Benjamin Franklin; also letters to William Jones, Robert Frazer, and Margaret H. Markoe, his fiancée. Also photostats of letters to Robert Alexander of Virginia, from the originals in University of Virginia Library.

This collection includes four letter books (1750-1767), containing principally business correspondence with Benjamin Franklin (42 letters), William Strahan (193 letters), and the stationers Bloss & Johnson, London, Johnson & Unwin, London, and Hamilton & Balfour, Edinburgh. There are also accounts current, 1748-1768 (2 vols.), of which one contains Edinburgh. There are also accounts current, 1748-1768 (2 vols.), of which one contains Franklin and Hall's account for printing done for the province of Pennsylvania, 1756-1767, with an index volume to these accounts; records of bills of exchange remitted to London, 1745-1752 (1 vol.); there are about 90 loose letters (some are photocopies) mainly from William Strahan to Hall, 1745-1775, concerning business matters, as well as English and American politics. Included in this group is correspondence relating to Hall and his publishing partnership, and his son William's partnership with Sellers. One additional volume is a photocopy of Franklin and Hall's "Work Book No. 2," 1759-1766, 1782-1789, from the original at the New York Public Library (B H142.lf).

The family correspondence of Richard and Sarah Franklin Bache on a variety of topics including references to Benjamin Franklin and his estate. There is also a family genealogy.

A leading national opinion maker and influential regional politician, tied by marriage to the families of Benjamin Franklin and cognate families, William Duane (1760-1835) played key roles in the field of political journalism, as well as national, Pennsylvania and local Philadelphia politics. Editor of the Aurora, William Duane (1760-1835) assured himself gratitude from Jefferson and the Republicans and enmity from President Adams and the Federalists for his open and effective attacks on Federalist policies. His son William John Duane (1780-1865), was a prominent member of the Pennsylvania legislature, a legal advisor to Stephen Girard, Solicitor for many of Philadelphia's premier institutions, and Secretary of the Treasury of the United States (June-September 1833). The Duane Family Collection contains a diverse assemblage of personal and professional correspondence relating to family members, with interesting material relating to William Duane (1760-1835), his son, William John Duane (1780-1865), grandson William Duane (1808-1882), great-grandson Charles Williams Duane (1837-1915), and other relations. The collection includes unique correspondence from and relating to Benjamin Franklin's family, as well as correspondence with Thomas Jefferson and other leading figures from the early nineteenth century. The collection also includes prints, photographs of family members, as well as some maps.

An important 18th century radical republican theorist and political writer, Thomas Paine was a leading figure in the American Revolution. Despite his humble beginnings and lack of formal education, his reasoned and persuasive writings not only influenced nascent American republican ideology, but profoundly affected the perception of government in England and France as well. His three most influential works are Common Sense (1776), The Rights of Man (1791-1792), and The Age of Reason (1794, 1795, 1807). The Richard Gimbel Collection is a heterogeneous mix of items connected only by the fact that they were all collected by Gimbel (1898-1970) and that most were written by, to, or about the revolutionary Paine. Of primary importance are the approximately sixty-five letters or manuscripts in Paine's own hand, including Paine's 1776 manuscript notes for Common Sense, his letter of January 10, 1781, in which he takes leave of his former commanding officer, Nathanael Greene, and his January 6, 1789 letter to Kitty Nicholson Few, in which he writes of his view of matrimony and other personal matters. The collection includes a series of correspondence between Thomas Paine and Samuel Adams, which were originally marked "forgeries," these appear instead simply to be the letters of two men bearing famous names.

John James Audubon (1785-1851), the American Woodsman, is a legendary naturalist and bird artist. His technique of painting North American birds dramatically as they appeared in their natural habitat was a major contribution to the emerging discipline of ornithology in the nineteenth century. His masterpiece, The Birds of America (1827-1838), elephant folio, was followed by a companion text edition, Ornithological Biography (1831-1849), a smaller octavo edition of Birds (1840-1844) and The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, published posthumously. This collection of original letters of publication information, ornithology, and some personal notes was sent primarily to Lucy Bakewell Audubon, his wife, from 1826-1834, and to Victor Gifford Audubon, his son, from 1833-1834, 1840-1844, with some sporadic contact with both between 1836-1839. Items in the collection relate to Audubon's Florida, Great Egg Harbor, and Great Pine Forest expeditions but not to his final expedition up the Missouri River. Of particular note, letters of 1833 and 1834 contain references to his response to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia president George Ord's attacks on his credibility. A partial journal entry from New Orleans in 1821 and a few letters to other correspondents, including John Bachman, round out the material.

The Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin prepared by Isaac Minis Hays for the bicentennial of Franklin's birth in 1906 provides access to the largest portion of the Franklin Papers at the APS. The items were originally bound into volumes in roughly chronological order, with letters to Franklin preceding those from Franklin and at the end of the collection, Franklin's letters owned by the University of Pennsylvania. Each manuscript is still identified by Hays' reference numbers, which include a roman numeral refering to the original volume followed by an arabic number to identify the folio. The electronic version of the finding aid replicates Hays' calendar, including the introductory material and item-level descriptions. It has been updated to reflect corrections in the metadata, corrections of personal names, dates, and description.

A physician, natural historian, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815) was one of the central figures in Philadelphia's early national scientific establishment. Having received his medical training in European universities, Barton was appointed Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1789, lecturing on botany, materia medica, natural history. A prolific author, he established his reputation as one of the nation's preeminent botanists through his botanical text book The Elements of Botany (1803), but his contribtions to zoology, ethnology, and medicine were equally noteworthy. Barton's monograph on the "fascinating faculty" of the rattlesnake and his efforts in historical linguistics (New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America, 1798) were widely read, and his Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal (1804-1809) was one of the nation's first medical journals and an important outlet for natural historical research. The Barton Papers offer a comprehensive view of the professional work of Benjamin Smith Barton from the time of his return to the United States in 1789 until his death. The collection is divided into five series: Correspondence, Subject Files, Bound Volumes, Graphic Materials, and Printing Plates. The collection includes a particularly valuable series of botanical, medical, and natural historical drawings collected by Barton for research, reference, and publication. Among the many artists represented are William Bartram, Frederick Pursh, Pierre Turpin, and Benjamin Henry Latrobe.