In the hand of an unknown author, this is a history of the Natchez Indians written at Natchez in November 1840.

This volume includes Swan's report to Henry Knox (1791), in which he reports contact with and observations of the Creek Indians, while acting as deputy agent to the Creek Nation.

This diary is a journal of a trip from Philadelphia by stage to Pittsburgh, then afoot through Franklin, LeBoeuf, and Erie to the Huron River; thence by boat to Detroit, where he remained 26-29 July, when he set out by canoe for Michilimackinac. Included are descriptions of Detroit, plants, animals, springs, Indian mounds, and notes on goitre.

In October 1719, the Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends for Philadelphia and the Jersies reached consensus on a "book of discipline" governing the "establishment and order of meetings." The regulations covered both the conduct of the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings and the personal comportment of individual members, refining the bureaucratic structure of the meetings and laying out the powers of Overseers and other officials. It touches upon marriage (mandating endogamy), burial, and attendance at meetings, and cautions Friends to plainness of speech and dress, drinking, smoking, backbiting, and gaming. This version of the Book of Discipline is a manuscript copy made for the American Philosophical Society in 1820 "from and antient Copy in the possession of Timothy Matlack, Esqr."

This copy of John Watson Sr.'s narrative of the 1737 Walking Purchase, written in 1815, was made by Watson's son in 1822. The elder Watson's narrative was printed with corrections and additions by the son in the Pennsylvania Correspondent, Doylestown. The volume includes the younger Watson's report of the recollections of Moses Bartram, his own commentary on the Walking Purchase, and a letter (1822) about this manuscript.

This item is Lewis' narrative journal of the river trip from Pittsburgh to the winter camp of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, together with meteorological observations. There are also entries by William Clark. Of the 126 leaves in this journal, 31 contain questions by Nicholas Biddle, with William Clark's replies, dated 1810. Includes parts II and III of Nicholas Biddle, "Notes on Indians...", and list of measurements of bones and other natural history specimens, in Lewis' hand. Also contains some sketches and two small maps.

These journals were kept while on the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806).

Robert Woodruff was secretary to John Anstey, Loyalists' Claims Commissioner. This journal relates his travels with John Anstey. He describes the towns he visited, and comments on episodes of the American Revolution and on the Federal Convention and state ratifying conventions. The journal covers a trip through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Georgia. He and Anstey spent a night at Mount Vernon in 1786. Mentions B. Franklin, G. Washington, APS Hall. Also refers to Five Nations country, Georgia's warfare with Creek Indians, and Chief McGillivray. For identification, see G. Washington's Diary, Dec.11, 1786.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were explorers. This collection contains the manuscript journals kept by Lewis and Clark on their travels to the source of the Missouri River and across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. There are interlineations throughout by Nicholas Biddle, who published his narrative "History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark" (1814).

A physician, natural historian, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815) was one of the central figures in Philadelphia's early national scientific establishment. Having received his medical training in European universities, Barton was appointed Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1789, lecturing on botany, materia medica, natural history. A prolific author, he established his reputation as one of the nation's preeminent botanists through his botanical text book The Elements of Botany (1803), but his contribtions to zoology, ethnology, and medicine were equally noteworthy. Barton's monograph on the "fascinating faculty" of the rattlesnake and his efforts in historical linguistics (New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America, 1798) were widely read, and his Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal (1804-1809) was one of the nation's first medical journals and an important outlet for natural historical research. The Barton Papers offer a comprehensive view of the professional work of Benjamin Smith Barton from the time of his return to the United States in 1789 until his death. The collection is divided into five series: Correspondence, Subject Files, Bound Volumes, Graphic Materials, and Printing Plates. The collection includes a particularly valuable series of botanical, medical, and natural historical drawings collected by Barton for research, reference, and publication. Among the many artists represented are William Bartram, Frederick Pursh, Pierre Turpin, and Benjamin Henry Latrobe.