George Clymer was a successful merchant, well-known politician, and a generous philanthropist, but is today most famous for being a signer of the Declaration of Independence. As a proponent of independence, he joined various local political committees including six of the seven Philadelphia resistance committees. From there, he entered the national political arena and in 1776 was elected to the Second Continental Congress where he signed the Declaration of Independence. The George Clymer Collection is a small one and not reflective of his varied pursuits. There are twenty-seven documents, most of which are not signed by Clymer; those that are signed by Clymer are dated between May 3, 1800 and January 22, 1813. The items represent not Clymer's political activities but his ordinary legal and real estate transactions.

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.