Letters written by Julia Rush, wife of Benjamin Rush, mainly to her husband, with one to Samuel Stockton and one to Mary Rush. Eight letters were written during the 1793 yellow fever epidemic. The letters are not included in Lyman Butterfield's edition of Benjamin Rush's letters, vol. 30 of APS Memoirs (1951).

Providing a glimpse in to the private life of a genteel lady in the early republic, the Elizabeth Bordley Gibson Papers consist of over 200 letters and notes written during the years 1795 to 1863. The bulk of the letters cover the period 1848-1863, and involve Gibson's correspondence with members of her extended family. Elizabeth was related to the influential Bordley, Mifflin, and Shippen families, three of the more prominent families in colonial and early republic Pennsylvania and Maryland. Most of the correspondence in the collection comprises letters between Elizabeth Bordley Gibson and her cousin Edward Shippen and her nieces Elizabeth Mifflin, Anne C. Ross, and Elizabeth Stump. Complementing other early American history collections at APS, the Gibson Papers offers important insights in to women's history and the history of influential mid-Atlantic families in nineteenth-century America.

Sarah Franklin Bache (1743-1808), a Revolutionary War patriot and daughter of Benjamin Franklin, led an active public life according to the standards of womanhood in the late eighteenth century. As the daughter of Benjamin Franklin she had an unusual access, for a woman, to the political life in revolutionary Philadelphia. Although her primary role was of caretaker of her family and home, Bache played an active role in the Revolution through her relief work and as her father's political hostess. The Sarah Franklin Bache papers consist of incoming and outgoing correspondence ranging from 1768 to 1807 mostly of a personal nature to and from friends and relatives. The correspondence of her relatives includes her nephew William Temple Franklin, her brother William Franklin and her children.

Catherine Wistar Bache (1805-1886) was the point of connection between two of Philadelphia's most illustrious families of the late eighteenth century. Daughter of the physician Caspar Wistar, in November 1797 she married Dr. William Bache, who was the son of Richard Bache and the grandson of Benjamin Franklin. Primarily letters to Mrs. Bache (wife of Dr. William Bache) of Philadelphia, from Mrs. David Hosack (nee Mary Eddy), Mrs. Elizabeth Trist, and Mary Jones. The letters are personal and concern family life, activities of husbands, etc., with many references to Caspar Wistar, There are comments on diseases, education (at William and Mary College), war, and politics. References are also made to the deaths of Richard Bache and Caspar Wistar, and to Benjamin Franklin's Stockado (a musical instrument).

This collection includes letters, diaries, notebooks, and early photographs, relating primarily to the Wister family of Germantown and Philadelphia. Much of the correspondence concerns domestic news and consists of letters from or to Sarah Wister. These include interesting observations on Germantown and Philadelphia society from other families as well, such as the Bayntons and Bullocks. There are numerous letters from various Wisters, including Casper, Charles Jones, Elizabeth (including a journal of a trip to Bristol, 1783), Hannah, John, Owen Jones, and others. There is also poetry by Sarah.

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.

This small but rich collection of letters and documents concern the Shippen family of Pennsylvania. The subjects of the letters are varied and include domestic details, military affairs of the Revolution and the Pennsylvania frontier, politics, trade, and business.

In addition to family and business correspondence, the Charles Nicoll Bancker Family Papers contains various documents, such as a furniture inventory volume (30pp.); a Daybook, 1795-1800 (120pp.); and a very interesting journal (unidentified, but by one of the Banckers, and filed under "Description of a trip..."), from New York to Albany and back, between July 20-Aug. 15, 1793 (1 vol., 31 pp.). It contains detailed observations of the Hudson River and the towns along the way. Bancker was involved in business and trade prior to 1826, and in insurance after that date, so there is material relating to those topics in this collection. He owned a substantial library of the period, which was used by Charles Wilkes's Expedition after 1837 (see Reynell Coates to Bancker). This library, along with Bancker's notable scientific instrument collection, was sold after his death and there are published auction catalogues in the collection. There is much family correspondence from: Anne E. Bancker, Charles Gerard Bancker, Evert Bancker, Sarah U. Bancker, Violetta Bancker Talbot, Elizabeth Bancker Teackle, and John Teackle.

A collection of business and personal papers of three generations of the prominent Philadelphia Jewish family from 1750-1974. Business records include trade and land transactions (some in Yiddish) of the Gratz brothers, Barnard and Michael (1750-1804) with the business continued by Michael's sons: Simon, Hyman, Joseph, Jacob, and Benjamin (1791-1861). Personal correspondence are primarily letters to Rebecca Gratz from her sisters Rachel and Sarah (1795-1867) with later correspondence to Rachel's children: Horace and Sara Moses (1832-1879). Contains a small group of French letters related to Napoleon III, collected by family member Miriam Fox, and some heirloom artifacts.

This is a collection of letters, letterbooks, account books, scrapbooks, etc., concerning the families of Robert Hare and Thomas Willing. The letters and other documents include early family material, as well as documents written by numerous family relations, and some obviously only collected by them. The Willing family letters (1744-1901) are diverse, concerning family matters, business, society, comments on the Civil War, etc. There are numerous letters from Thomas Willing, many concerning his banking career, as President of the Bank of North America and later at the first Bank of the U.S. The Hare family letters (1724-1965) are more extensive and diverse, including much on travel in the U.S. and elsewhere. There is a letter from Robert Hare Jr. concerning steam engines, and letters from Horace Binney Hare concerning his education at Harvard, 1860, his trip to San Francisco and the west, 1862, and numerous letters written while a soldier in the Civil War. There are many letters from Horace Binney (1780-1875, DAB) to his daughter Esther, who was married to John Innes Clark Hare (1816-1905, DAB), concerning family travel and court cases. There are also letters from outside the family, such as those from Dorothea L. Dix. The bound volumes include, among others: Robert Hare letterbooks (1824-1825, 1841-1857), estate records, and laboratory expense accounts (1818-1860); G. H. Hare's journal or log of cruises aboard the U.S. United States (1841) and U.S. Flint (1845); Horace Binney Hare's 1862 journal of his trip to San Francisco. There are account books and accounts (1754-1795) kept by Thomas Willing; accounts of the controversy over the estate of John Innes Clark; and records of the First Colored Wesley Methodist Church of Philadelphia (receipt book, 1820-1848; minute book, 1827-1844). There are also Philadelphia court records, and minutes of the Common Council of the city, 1832.