This volume contains approximately 175 letters written by Thomas Penn and Richard Penn on public business. A few are copies of letters by James Hamilton, a member of the Provincial Council and lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, and by or to Abraham Taylor.

These papers include letters from relatives, friends, and former students, chiefly on family affairs, social events, and schools in Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Also included are receipts for personal expenditures, and letters of recommendation for teaching positions and from J. P. Lesley for admission to Yale College, where Moore received the Ph.B. degree in 1855. Moore was Lesley's assistant in preparing the Pennsylvania Railroad maps of western Pennsylvania.

William Tilghman (1756-1827; APS 1805) was a jurist and chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He held several positions as a judge and lawyer in the Philadelphia area and was active in the American Philosophical Society. He helped form and served as the head of the Committee of History, the Moral Sciences and General Literature for the APS and was elected the President of the APS in 1824, a position he held until his death.

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).

David Rittenhouse (1732-1796) was one of the most prominent American men of science of the 18th Century. A skilled instrument maker, Rittenhouse was the an astronomer, playing a major role in recording the 1769 Transit of Venus, among many accomplishments. Rittenhouse also conducted important survey work for the state of Pennsylvania, establishing the state's western border, as well as overseeing the completion of the Mason-Dixon survey. In addition to his scientific endeavors, Rittenhouse's work for American independence places him among the important founding fathers. Subordinating his scientific interests for the greater good of Pennsylvania during the American Revolution, Rittenhouse served as a member of both the Pennsylvania Assembly and the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, and held powerful positions on the Pennsylvania Council of Safety and the subsequent Committee on Safety. Rittenhouse also served as the first director of the United States' Mint, at the behest of President George Washington. Rittenhouse was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1768 and played a major role in placing the Society on the scientific map. He held many positions in the Society, including serving as its President from 1791 until his death in 1796. The Rittenhouse papers span 1774 to 1932, and consist of 61 items, over 0.25 linear feet. The collection is comprised mainly of correspondence, but also includes receipts, genealogies and broadsides.

Jasper Yeates (1745-1817) was a lawyer and Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice, one of the state's most successful colonial-era legal practitioners. After moving to Lancaster County in 1765, he became active in colonial and early federal affairs, first by supporting the Revolutionary struggle and later by serving as one of Lancaster's delegates to the State Convention of 1787, which ratified the U.S. Constitution. The Jasper Yeates Papers (1728-1910, bulk 1760-1816) consist mainly of correspondence and business and court/legal records related to the Yeates family. The bulk of this three linear foot collection reflect Yeates' personal life as husband, father, son, and friend, as well as his professional life as lawyer and judge in Pennsylvania; much of the material dated after Yeates' death was created by children and/or grandchildren.

This volume contains letters relating to the purchase and shipment of goods in America, Europe, and the West Indies, commecing 22d, 12mo. 1744, ending 6th, 2mo. 1747. Some are signed by Matthias Aspden, John Reynell, and John Smith.

Written from China to his family, the letters of James Bancker contain descriptions of the social life of the Americans and English in China, of Hong Kong after the British acquisition of that place, and of anti-British riots in Canton. A long letter describes the outward voyage from New York to Canton; several letters given an account of a visit to the Philippines; and there is a partial journal of Bancker's return home through the Red Sea.

The material in this collection is primarily the receipts for books, clothes, passages, a rhinoceros, etc., while he was in Calcutta. There is also a small volume (approximately 50 pages), a duplicate receipt book which he kept as the Consul for the U.S. in Vera Cruz, Mexico.

These papers concern business and legal affairs, and include Price's writings on the law of real and personal property, and private wrongs. Also includes a letter to Daniel Webster.

These documents are principally of Pennsylvania interest, 1757-1809, including letters to Richard I. Manning from John C. Calhoun, Marquis de Lafayette, George McDuffie, and William Wirt. There are also letters of Clement C. Biddle, James Buchanan, Francis J. Grund, James Madison, Timothy Pickering, and William H. Seward. In addition, there are several musical scores (n.d.) and 19 cancelled checks (1861-1871) drawn by Ticknor and Fields in Boston, to the order of various American authors.

An extensive family collection, the Vaux Family Papers center around the lives of George Vaux V (1721-1803), George Vaux VII (1779-1836), and George Vaux VIII (1832-1915), their business partners, siblings, wives, and children, and encompasses the extended Vaux family of Warders, Sansoms, Heads, Graffs, Morrises, Cressons, and Mayberrys. The collection includes correspondence, financial accounts, receipts, business records, journals, diaries, photographs, and legal documents.

This collection contains material relating to his legal affairs, medical publications, receipts for books purchased, and information on botany. Important correspondents include Edward H. Clarke, George Mifflin Dallas, Samuel David Gross, and Joseph Henry. There is also family history in these papers.

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.

This correspondence is principally concerned with business between Pershouse and his brother James in England, with comments on conditions and events in the United States, including anti-British feeling, Thomas Paine's return to America, Jefferson's administration, and immigration. The papers include Pershouse's journal (1800-1838), which includes accounts of travels in England, France, and the United States, letterbooks (1836-1862) of Henry Pershouse, nephew of John, chiefly on business matters, and two volumes of Pershouse genealogical data, compiled by B.M. Pershouse Bayley (1899).

This collection is primarily correspondence, accounts, bills, and receipts of Anthony Morris, but also included is older material on the Morris family (deeds, indentures, etc.). The correspondence centers on two major topics: the settlement of the estate of a Baron de Kalb, and information concerning Morris' proposal to set up the Fellenberg Institution for agricultural education, on his estate at Bolton Farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

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 son of William Franklin, Royal Governor of New Jersey, William Temple Franklin worked as aide to his grandfather, Benjamin Franklin, when the latter served as minister to France during the American Revolution. A bonvivant, Temple received his highest public appointment as Secretary to the American delegation at the Treaty of Versailles in 1782-1783, largely through the influence of his famous grandfather, but never again attained a significant post. As Franklin's literary heir, he edited and published a three volume set of his grandfather's writings in 1817. He married his long time mistress a few months before his death in Paris in 1823. The William Temple Franklin Papers provides a richly detailed portrait of the life of the grandson of Benjamin Franklin, and consists largely of letters received during the years that Temple served as his grandfather's aide in France, 1776-1785. Although much of the correspondence is routine, during this period, Temple received regular reports from friends and diplomatic colleagues relaying information on the American Revolution, the course of diplomatic and peace negotiations, and French public opinion on Benjamin Franklin and the new United States. The collection is also a rich resource for information on the personal lives of the Franklins, including interesting correspondence from Temple's relatives William Franklin, Elizabeth Franklin, Sarah Franklin Bache, and Jonathan Williams, and his mistress Blanchette Caillot.

These letters and papers include ten small volumes of letterbooks (1752-1781), and ca. 100 pieces of correspondence with Joseph Shippen (1750-1778). Topics discussed are business in Philadelphia and Lancaster, provincial politics, army supply in the French and Indian War, land purchases and speculation, housebuilding, and family affairs.