The Lusanna, a seventy-ton brigantine, was owned by Elisha Doane of Massachusetts, and sailed with his son-in-law Shearjashub Bourne as supercargo. She sailed from Massachusetts in 1775 at the onset of the American Revolution. On the return voyage from London in 1777 she was captured by the privateer McClary out of Portsmouth, NH. In the prize case that followed in the New Hampshire maritime court, Bourne and Doane unsuccessfully tried to defend their ship. Their appeal eventually made its way to the Continental Congress. The Lusanna Prize Case Records is a written transcript of the proceedings in Admiralty Court of the armed brigantine McClary vs. the brigantine Lusanna in the State of New Hampshire. The transcript contains the entire proceedings of the case including the libel, statements of the crew and passengers, invoices for items shipped aboard the Lusanna, bills of lading, copies of letters pertaining to the voyage and cargo, copy of the prize case against the Industry (another vessel owned by Doane captured by the British in 1775), testimony in support of the owners of the Lusanna as loyal to the United States, the decision of the court, and the appeal.

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.

The Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin prepared by Isaac Minis Hays for the bicentennial of Franklin's birth in 1906 provides access to the largest portion of the Franklin Papers at the APS. The items were originally bound into volumes in roughly chronological order, with letters to Franklin preceding those from Franklin and at the end of the collection, Franklin's letters owned by the University of Pennsylvania. Each manuscript is still identified by Hays' reference numbers, which include a roman numeral refering to the original volume followed by an arabic number to identify the folio. The electronic version of the finding aid replicates Hays' calendar, including the introductory material and item-level descriptions. It has been updated to reflect corrections in the metadata, corrections of personal names, dates, and description.

This rich collection of letters and documents, which was assembled by Sol Feinstone (1888-1980) over a period of fifty years, includes material on almost all notable Americans from before the Revolution to the 1850's, as well as prominent Europeans, and there are documents relating to military affairs. There are substantial groups of letters from: John Adams, Henry Dearborn, Alexander Hamilton, Jedediah Huntington, Thomas Jefferson, Lafayette, George Washington, and a long run of letters from a Massachusetts military surgeon named Samuel Adams. Many letters, though written by Revolutionary figures, relate to events that occurred before or after the War.