Founded in Cap François, Saint Domingue (now Haiti) in August 1785, the Cercle des Philadelphes was one of the most prestigious colonial learned societies of the Ancien Regime. During its brief seven year existence, the Cercle pursued an agenda of promoting improvements in agriculture, manufactures, the arts and sciences, published five volumes of memoirs, and established correspondence with their peers in the American Philosophical Society and other learned societies. Their foreign membership included both Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush. The Cercle des Philadelphes Collection is a small, but important assemblage of documents relating to French colonial science. Each of the documents is associated with Louis Narcisse Baudry de Lozières, the first president of the Cercle, including three certificates appointing him to office, and two important addresses. The first of these appears to be his opening remarks to the Cercle at its first public meeting on Aug. 15, 1784. The second is an early, but undated document outlining the organization of the Cercle and its aims.

Passports, 1827, membership certificates, receipts, family letters, and 20 letters to La Roche from Thomas Dunn and Ayres Phillips Merrill on scientific, medical, and personal topics.

The Scaliger Family Papers, when taken together, trace the history of a noble family that was originally from Italy but lived primarily in Agen, France from the mid-1500s through the mid-1800s. Beginning with the patriarch, Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484-1558), a celebrated Italian scholar and physician, the members of the Scaliger family upheld an illustrious reputation over the centuries as scholars, military leaders, and noblemen. Throughout their family's history, the Scaligers maintained that they were descended from the Della Scallas, Princes of Verona. It is as a result of the necessity to defend this claim as well as later attempts to prove their ties to their noble heritage that this collection of documents has remained so well intact. The Scaliger Family Papers is a collection that encompasses several different kinds of documents that span from 1539 to 1862 including letters, genealogical material, works by members of the Scaliger family, as well as military, legal, and financial documents.