This material relates to Alexander B. Grosart's biography of Wilson. There are notes and copies of letters and documents, including a copy of Wilson's will. There is one poem by Wilson, "The Last Wish," and an 1806 letter to William Bartram.

The primary correspondence (ca. 65 letters) is with William Cooper (1798-1864) on Bonaparte's publications, especially "American Ornithology" and "Observations on the Nomenclature of Wilson's Ornithology," but also included are many references to American and European men of science and learned societies. There are also letters to Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, George Robert Gray, Titian Ramsay Peale, and Wilhelm P. S. Rüppell.