Born in Boston and educated there and in France, Samuel Breck (1771-1862) was a major figure in the mercantile, philanthropic, and political life of Philadelphia during the first hald of the nineteenth century. With an interest in historical and literary affairs, Breck was an active member of the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Phialdelphia Athenaeum, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the American Philosophical Society (elected 1838). The Breck Collection is comprised of two manuscripts written by Samuel Breck. The first, "Historical Sketch of the Continental Bills of Credit, from 1775 to 1781, with Specimens Thereof" (1840), includes an essay and 153 specimens of Continental Currency. The second essay, "Recollections of My Acquaintance and Association with Deceased Members of the American Philosophical Society" (1862) includes the 92 year-old Breck's reminiscences of his personal relationships with the nationally and internationally prominent membership of the APS.

This volume contains short sketches of prominent American and European scholars, diplomats, and statesmen. "These short memoirs were composed in the heat of the summer of 1862; and the concluding page written on the 15th of August of that year, when I was about one month advanced in my ninety second year; my birthday being July 17th, 1771." Signed Saml. Breck. Persons discussed include Talleyrand Perigord; M. Volney; Rochefoucauld Liancourt; Louis Philippe, King of the French; Joel Barlow; William Bingham; Robert Morris; Alexander Hamilton; General Henry Knox; Doctor Benjamin Rush; Doctor Rush and William Cobbett.

Since publication of I. Minis Hays's Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in 1908, the APS Library has acquired a large number of miscellaneous letters and other documents relating to the life, mind, and work of Franklin and his immediate family. The collections listed in this finding aid consist of letters and documents to and from Franklin organized into groupings based upon provenance or focal point. The largest grouping consists of miscellaneous materials acquired individually or in small groups over the years, including a number of important individual items. The other collections consist largely of correspondence between Franklin and individual friends and colleagues, including his friends Mme Brillon, Mary "Polly" Stevenson Hewson, and Catherine Ray Greene, the Whig agriculturist Richard Jackson, and the printer Francis Childs. The collections include photostats of selected materials held by other institutions or that were in private hands. These are available for reference only.

This collection includes letters to and from Americans (including South America and the West Indies) and letters about America selected from the Society's manuscripts (Classified Papers, Letter Books, Letters and Papers, Royal Society Letters, Miscellaneous Correspondence, and other official groups) and from collections of private papers (Sir Charles Blagden, William Buckland, John Canton, Sir John F. W. Herschel, Sir Edward Sabine, and others). The documents range in time and character from John Winthrop, Jr., "A Description of the Artifice & Making of Tarr & Pitch in New England" (1662), to letters from Sir Thomas Edward Thorne to his wife describing the American West, where he was on a surveying party in the 1880s.