These are primarily letters, with some receipts for medical services rendered included. They relate to the general social and intellectural life of Philadelphia and to publications on medical topics. Many of the letters are introductions to Europeans when Pennock first visited there. Letters dated post-1867 are to relatives and colleagues (?).

This journal was kept while Shippen was a student of medicine in London under Dr. Colin McKenzie and Dr. William Hunter. Notable people mentioned are Dennys De Berdt, Mark Akenside, George Whitefield, John Fothergill, David Garrick, and Thomas Penn.

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.

The natural historian Richard Harlan was a pioneer in the study of comparative anatomy and vertebrate paleontology in the United States during the years following the War of 1812. Having received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1818, Harlan was employed as an instructor of anatomy at Joseph Parrish's school and at the Philadelphia Museum. A practicing physician and member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the American Philosophical Society, Harlan made important contributions in comparative neuroanatomy, paleontology, herpetology, and systematic zoology. He died shortly after moving to New Orleans in 1839. Harlan's journals document two of the three overseas voyages he undertook during his lifetime. The first took place in 1816-1817 when Harlan was still a medical student, accompanying an East Indiaman to Calcutta as ship's surgeon. The second took place when Harlan was at the peak of his career in 1833, venturing to England, France, and Italy to strengthen contacts with European colleagues. Interesting travel narratives in themselves, the journals mingle enthusiasm for the new and exotic with a touch of Harlan's truculance. The European journal includes a valuable account of the 3nd meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Cambridge at which Harlan delivered a paper on fossil reptiles.

The collection contains information on Fox family speculation in western lands, two manuscript maps from the 1790's and 1830's depicting the family's holdings in northwestern Pennsylvania, and a photograph album from the 1890's documenting Chestnutwold, the Fox estate adjacent to Andalusia. Chief correspondents are Samuel and George Fox.

The collection includes letters between Hutchinson and his uncle Israel Pemberton, written while Hutchinson was a student of medicine in London. There are also 12 tickets of admission to medical lectures in Philadelphia and London, including one given by William Hunter, and 3 unused cards of admission to Hutchinson's own lectures. Miscellaneous items include Hutchinson's marriage certificate; genealogical data on the Hutchinson, Hare, and Pemberton families; and stock certificates, 1857-1872, of the McKean and Elk Land and Improvement Company. Materials dated post-1793 are to and from Hutchinson family members.