This volume of letters Sebastian Ferris Streeter and John Henry Alexander, both of the Maryland Historical Society, relating to efforts of Henry to secure information on Indian names and to obtain travel grants from the Maryland Historical Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Smithsonian Institution. There are letters from Edward Ballard of Maine Historical Society, and P. W. Leland and Usher Parsons of Rhode Island Historical Society, concerning New England Indian place names. There is also a letter (1854) to J. Francis Fisher and others of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in response to a circular appeal, on Indian names of Northampton County, Pennsylvania (929.4 H39).

A pioneer in ethnographic and linguistic studies of the American Indian and one of the most active members of the American Philosophical Society, Peter Stephen Du Ponceau helped to establish the American Philosophical Society's reputation as one of the world's foremost centers for the study of American Indians and their languages. The Peter Stephen Du Ponceau collection consists of correspondence on legal matters, Indian linguistics, silk culture, maritime law, the American Philosophical Society, and various publications of the early nineteenth century. The collection also includes several essays by Du Ponceau, most of which deal with maritime law.

This collection contains primarily professional correspondence and papers, but there is substantial material concerning Shryock family history. Most of the collection relates to Shryock's intellectual and social life at the University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, and Johns Hopkins University-- institutions where he made contributions as a professor of history and especially as a medical historian.