This autobiography relates Rush's experiences in college and medical school; his meetings with notable doctors; his life in Scotland, England, and France; his medical views; the military and politics during the Revolutionary War; and brief sketches of personalities of that period.

These photostats are selections from the original manuscript, which is a portion of a volume entitled "Letters, facts, and observations upon a variety of subjects." The topics include medicine, slavery, the African church, gossip and social events, the deaths of prominent Philadelphians, and Rush's philosophy on various subjects. Contains questions for Alexander McGillivray, on diseases, mortality, passions of Creek Indians.

This item contains entries about prominent people (primarily accounts of their deaths); Philadelphia events and gossip; the Pennsylvania Hospital; questions for Meriwether Lewis on Indian physical history, medicine, morals, and religion; and his views on marriage, religion, physicians, etc. Also includes meeting with Captain Wells and Little Turtle; speculations on Indian skin color at the equator.

This volume contains medical notes by Wistar, including observations on yellow fever and arguments to prove its foreign origin, facts relative to the progress of the fever in 1797, the infection and death of Colonel Van Emburgh, the infection of the crew of the ship "Deborah" and of the Durham boat (1802), an account of the diseases which afflicted the family of James Hammar in Montgomery County (Pa.), facts relating to the typhus fever of 1812-1813, case histories (1796-1803), temperature chart (1758-1759, 1760), and a thermometrical journal (1760-1765) kept by Charles Norris and copied by Wistar from notes in possession of Joseph Parker Norris.

The collection of about 850 items covers the period from 1782 to c. 1936, with the bulk dating to the 1780s to 1840s. The collection is divided into four series. Series I contains correspondence relating to a wide variety of topics, including French and English politics, business, trade, religious matters, and personal affairs. Many of the items are letters of introduction. There is also information on John Vaughan's immigration to America, Joseph Priestley, vaccines and inoculation (with Jefferson's comments on the same), Vaughan's business in Philadelphia, and the American Philosophical Society. Also included in this series are 2 boxes with copies of Vaughan correspondence as well as miscellaneous notes by E. W. Madeira, gathered in the course of his research on Vaughan in the 1930s. Series II consists of three volumes. Included are two of Vaughan's commonplace books. One, entitled, "J. Vaughan's book," May 17, 1779 (47 pp., in Latin; 870/L34), includes mostly Latin notations. The other commonplace book, dated 1783 (ca. 66 pp.; B V 462.c), includes comments on several prominent Americans, such as Benjamin Rush and David Rittenhouse, as well as American society generally. The third volume is a copybook with thirty letters spanning the period 1784 to 1801 (B V462.1). Series III includes material relating to Vaughan's administration of the estate of the Philadelphia merchant Samuel Merrick, 1796-1822 (Vaughan-Merrick Papers, B V462.m; 2 boxes). Series IV consists of correspondence between Vaughan and the DuPont Co. for which he served as agent (B V462.4; photocopies of 73 letters).