William John Hamilton (1805-1867) English geologist and eldest son of the famed antiquarian and purchaser of the Rosetta Stone, William Richard Hamilton (1777-1859), studied at the University of Goettingen from 1825-1827. The Hamilton Papers consists principally of correspondence written by William John Hamilton to his parents, reflecting the young geologist's intellectual development, his course of study, student life, and holiday travels. Arranged chronologically, the letters mirror the political and cultural events of the period.

Field recordings made on 10 wire spools in 1948 in Lame Deer, Montana and El Reno, Oklahoma. Consists of traditional and historical stories, autobiographical narratives, unidentified texts, all given in Cheyenne only. Also includes discussions of the state of Cheyenne learning among the younger generation, and a variety of peyote, war dance, and hand game songs.

After a brief career in the Congregational church, J. Peter Lesley (1819-1903) left the ministry in 1852 to work full-time as a geologist. Having gained experience in structural geology and stratigraphy with the First Pennsylvania Geological Survey (1836-1842), Lesley became an expert in the geology of coal, working for the Pennsylvania Railroad and other corporations and conducting some of the first systematic studies of the state's hydrocarbon resources. A long-time professor at the University of Pennsylvania, he was elected to the APS in 1856, serving variously as its librarian, secretary, and vice president, and he was selected as Director of the Second Pennsylvania Geological Survey (1875-1889). The Lesley Papers include letters to and from Peter Lesley and his wife, Susan on geology, coal and iron mining, abolition, educational reform, organized charity, and Unitarianism. The collection offers important insight into academic and applied geology in late 19th century Pennsylvania, the development of the coal and iron industries, as well as into the Lesleys' progressive social and intellectual milieu. It is divided into three series: Lesley's general correspondence, his correspondence with his brother Joseph, and microfilms of Lesley's research notes.

The material in the collection is an assembly of unrelated recording collections made by multiple collectors. This collection consists of recordings on wire or phonograph discs sent by the APS Library to the Library of Congress in December 1970 in exchange for duplication of the material on to archival reel-to-reel tapes. The original formats are housed at the Library of Congress.