Notes and sketches showing design of artifacts in various French and British museums. Artifacts include Canadian and U.S. Indian materials, as well as South Pacific, southeast Asian, and provincial French pieces. Bibliographic references. Repositories include the British Museum, Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris), Musée du Louvre, Musée de l'homme, and the Ashmolean Museum.

Series I is a miscellaneous collection of letters concerning geology, geological exploration of Russia, entomology, glaciers, appointments in the British Museum, Geological Society of London business, Royal Geographical Society, references to David Livingstone, and zoology. Series II consists of letters written from America, to Murchison, discussing geology, natural history, and contemporary topics.

This collection contains correspondence on natural history, expecially mollusks, fishes, and birds, and on medicine and social affairs, with references to the British Museum of Natural History. Also included are a paper by Owen on dinosaurs and a synopsis of a course of lectures, 1857.

These are primarily letters to Gray on various aspects of natural history, with many references to collections at the British Museum of Natural History. There are numerous letters from British scientists and from European colleagues. There are letters from Americans too, such as those from Agassiz which relate to his Florida expeditions and the creation of natural history collections.