This collection is comprised of materials from seven repositories and includes correspondence from Banks' colleagues and explorers, such as John Hope, Josiah Wedgwood, Georg Forster, and Captain William Bligh; records of expenses for voyages and journeys; and journals kept during voyages to New Foundland and Labrador (1766) and around the world with Captain James Cook (1768-1771). Topics include botany and horticulture, marine life, and collecting specimens.

This collection includes letters to and from Americans (including South America and the West Indies) and letters about America selected from the Society's manuscripts (Classified Papers, Letter Books, Letters and Papers, Royal Society Letters, Miscellaneous Correspondence, and other official groups) and from collections of private papers (Sir Charles Blagden, William Buckland, John Canton, Sir John F. W. Herschel, Sir Edward Sabine, and others). The documents range in time and character from John Winthrop, Jr., "A Description of the Artifice & Making of Tarr & Pitch in New England" (1662), to letters from Sir Thomas Edward Thorne to his wife describing the American West, where he was on a surveying party in the 1880s.