Born in Schiffdorf (near Bremerhafen), John Bohlen became one of Philadelphia's most prominent merchants at the turn of the nineteenth century. Running a profitable concern in partnership with his brother Bohl (1754-1836), John Bohlen imported commodities from their native Holland. Thanks to an insatiable American thirst for gin, Bohlen amassed an immense fortune that enabled him to travel in the same social circles as Stephen Girard and others among the mercantile elite and to win a spot in 1816 as one of the Directors of the Bank of the United States. By the time of his death, he was one of only eleven Philadelphians whose personal estates exceeded one million dollars in value. The Bohlen Collection contains a scant ten letters that appear to have been retained, as much as anything, for their autograph interest. Although they shed relatively little light on the life of John Bohlen, they do offer interesting glimpses into the personalities of Bohlen's famous correspondents, including Stephen Girard, Francis Scott Key, Meriwether Lewis, Virgil Maxcy, Oliver Hazard Perry, and Timothy Pickering.

From the Board of Trustees of the Estate of Stephen Girard, these films are the complete archive of one of the largest mercantile and financial operations in the United States of his day. The collection includes correpondence, with translations of letters in French (139 reels). It also includes bank records, account books, ledgers, cash books, and journals; papers, documents, and records of trading voyages (arranged by vessel and date); records of Girard's country house, "The Place"; records of real estate, rents, etc.; prices current of ports of the world. There is a card index of correspondents and ships (14 reels). Included is a card file, a unique and invaluable research tool, this is an index of names and places and alphabetical abstracts of Philadelphia newspaper items and advertisements for the period covering ca. 1718-1795. Roach made a systematic search through eighteenth-century newspapers and several other sources, for biographical and subject information on Philadelphians and Pennsylvanians of the period. It is primarily biographical , but subject headings, such as "The Barracks," "Blue Lion, Sign of the," "Custom House," are scattered throughout. The source of each entry is cited, and there are brief annotations. There is also a miscellaneous assortment of volumes that were received with the Kane family papers.