Bache, then a captain's clerk on the U.S.S. Hartford, maintained the first diary during the American Civil War; the second and third while A.D. Bache served as an assistant paymaster on the U.S.S. Iroquois, of the Asiatic Squadron.

Written from China to his family, the letters of James Bancker contain descriptions of the social life of the Americans and English in China, of Hong Kong after the British acquisition of that place, and of anti-British riots in Canton. A long letter describes the outward voyage from New York to Canton; several letters given an account of a visit to the Philippines; and there is a partial journal of Bancker's return home through the Red Sea.

Baruch S. Blumberg was a biomedical researcher at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, in Philadelphia, PA, during the second half of the 20th century. His research into Australia Antigen and the Hepatitis B Virus led to a vaccine for the virus and a share of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Dr. Blumberg also served as chief of the Geographic Medicine and Genetics Section at the NIH (1957-1964), Master of Balliol College (1989-1994), the first Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (1999-2002), and President of the American Philosophical Society (2005-2011).

Robert Cushman Murphy (1887-1973), one of the twentieth century's great ornithologists, was curator of mammals and birds at the Brooklyn Museum (1911-1917) and was curator of birds and later chairman of birds at the American Museum of Natural History (1917-1973). The world's foremost authority on sea birds, in 1936, he penned Oceanic Birds of South America, a two volume set. An ardent traveler and explorer, he kept copious notes of his travels, which he typed up, illustrated and had bound. The APS library owns forty-two bound journals. Murphy was made an APS member in 1946. A pioneer in the study of the ecology, a louse, fish, plant, lizard, an Antarctic inlet, spider, and two mountains have acquired his name. This collection contains diaries, journals, articles, addresses and observations of Murph;, generously illustrated with newspaper clippings, photographs, letters, sketches, maps, and charts.

Recorded by Anthony Wallace in 1948 and 1949 at the Tuscarora Reservation in Niagara County, New York. Contains folkloric stories, tribal histories (especially relating to the 18th and 19th centuries), autobiographical stories, reminiscences, word lists, and descriptions of tribal government, organizations, and customs. Almost all stories are given in both Tuscarora and English. Originally recorded on 16 wire spools, transfered to open reel tape in 1950.