This collection pertains principally to the Cherokees of North Carolina and Oklahoma and to their language, ethnography, folklore, archeology, history, music, etc. Includes Indian studies and correspondence by Gillespie, notes on Indian dances and linguistics, bibliographies, publications of the Archaeological Society of Brigham Young University, and newspaper clippings. Also comprised of materials on: Apache, Calusa, Chippewa, Choctaw, Delaware, Eskimo, Fox, Iroquois, Karankawa, Kuchin, Louchens, Mattaponi, Muskogee, Navajo, Onondaga, Pueblo, Sauk, Seminole, Seneca, Shawnee, Sioux, Slave, Timucua, Tuscarora, Tutelo, and Wyandot. Contains: Gillespie, "A grammar of western dialect of Cherokee language of the Iroquoian family," 1949-1954 (131 pages); "Miscellaneous material on the Cherokee Indians and language"; "Miscellaneous items pertaining to the American Indian."

Through his craniometic studies of human races, the Philadelphia physician Samuel George Morton (1799-1851) exerted a profound influence on the development of physical anthropology in antebellum America, and made substantial contributions to mineralogy, paleontology, and natural history. Relating primarily to Morton's scientific interests, the Morton Papers include insights into Morton's perspectives on education, medical practice, geology and mineralogy, craniology, paleontology, the Wilkes Exploring Expedition (also known as the United States Exploring Expedition 1838-1842), and his two major monographs, the Crania Americana and Crania Aegyptiaca. Several of the letters were written by Morton in his capacity as corresponding secretary of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Also included in this collection are Morton's "Some Remarks on the Infrequency of Mixed Offspring Between the European and Australian Races" (1850), Joseph Barclay Pentland's notes on the aborigines of Peru (ca. 1840?), and newspaper clippings on Morton's death; a diary of Morton's trip to the West Indies, 1834, a set of craniological sketches for use in Crania Americana, and a microfilm of letters in private hands, written to Morton, 1838-1844