These papers include correspondence from over 180 individuals, lecture notes and essays on mathematics, astronomy, and electricity, and his diaries from journeys through Germany (1798) and Switzerland (1802).

The first fifteen volumes of these "Notes of Travel" are Lea's account of his trips to Europe during 1832 and 1852-1853. He met with naturalists, scientists, and did much sightseeing in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Austria. He records in detail visits and discussions with scientists, and makes sketches of many of the places he saw, particularly the Rhine River. The sixteenth volume is a memorandum book, 1853, containing accounts and expenses while in Europe.

This set of journals, copied legibly but with many excisions into the last volume, 914 Sm61, is from a tour of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France, and England, to inspect technological improvements in manufacturing and mining. There are accounts of visits with C.D. Ebeling, Friedrich Klopstock, J.A.J. Reimarus, Anders Sparmann, and Karl P. Thunberg. Smith bequeathed this journal to the American Philosophical Society with the request that it be published if found to contain information "useful to the manufactories of my country."

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.

[The following comprises the original Abstract, which will be significantly revised.] >>> These are notes, sketches, memoranda, etc., made while Lyman directed the geological survey of Japan, 1873-1879, with reports on petroleum resources, copper, coal, iron, and gold mines, oil, mineral springs, and other mineral resources of the Japanese archipelago. There are data on the Japanese, Chinese, Ainu, and French languages, and on Japanese manners and customs, wit and humor, gardening, painting, measurements, swords, etc. Notes and data on the life, travels, and publications of Bernard Varenius. Notes collected for Lyman's Vegetarian Diet and Dishes. Materials on the geology of New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico, and West Virginia; and on coal and iron fields in those states and elsewhere. Manuscripts of articles on instruments for boring wells, theodolites for mining and civil engineers, other surveying instruments, etc. >>> Of particular note is Lyman's period of study in Europe, where he attended the Imperial School of Mines in Paris, France (1859-1861), and the Royal Academy of Mines, Freiberg, Germany (1861-1862). There are about eleven notebooks for this period, written in English, French, and German, that contain: lecture notes, travel observations, comments on geology, mines and mining, railroads, with sketches of machinery, etc. There are a large number of letters (ca. 7,000 items), 1850-1917, from and to Lyman, on personal and business affairs.

Ernst Krackowizer (1821-1875), father-in-law to the anthropologist Franz Boas (APS 1903), was an Austrian born surgeon who fled Vienna to New York following his involvement as captain of the Academic Legion during the Revolution of 1848. Krackowizer was an active member of New York medical community, helping to found the German Dispensary and Hospital, later renamed Lenox Hill Hospital. During the Civil War, Krackowizer assisted the Union Army as a volunteer surgeon and inspector of military hospitals. Krackowizer is claimed to have been the first on whom the anesthetic effects of chloroform were tested in Vienna and the first to use a laryngoscope in the United States. This collection is comprised of the personal papers of Ernst Krackowizer including diplomas, certificates, correspondence, diaries, and photographs, which document his life and medical career. Krackowizer's experience in the Revolution of 1848 and subsequent flight from Vienna trough Germany to the United States is well detailed in his correspondence to his fiancée and later wife, Emilie Forster, and in his diaries, which make up a significant portion of this collection. Krackowizer firsthand description of the early use of chloroform and the laryngoscope are included, as well as materials documenting his involvement as a volunteer surgeon and hospital inspector during the Civil War. Additionally, the Krackowizer Papers contain material written by others reference the life and work of Ernst Krackowizer.

Mostly concerned with Blakeslee's studies on beans, blood groups, colchicine, Datura, embryo cultures, and horticulture. Many letters relate to the support and direction of the Smith College Genetics Experiment Station, which he headed. Other letters are about the Carnegie Institution of Washington, "Biological Abstracts," American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Philosophical Society, Institut de France, University of Connecticut. Also contains travel letters from Germany and miscellaneous lectures.

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.