Reel one contains account books, including Agness Minshall (1784-1810), Jacob Minshall (1773-1818), Enos Painter (1802-1863), Minshall Painter (1842-1873), and John J. Tyler (1890-1910). Reel two contains almanacs, receipts, and bank books of Jacob Minshall (1843-1877), Enos Painter (1852-1854), Minshall Painter (1840-1873), and John J. Tyler. Reel three contains day books for Minshall Painter and Jacob Minshall, Mathew Carey's "Account of the Yellow Fever Epidemic," Society of Friends burial records for the Middletown Friends' Meeting graveyard (1787-1859), and complaints against the Painter family (1699-1807), genealogies of the Dutton family, Painter family, Tyler family, Minshall family, and Gilpin family, and journals of travels of John J. Tyler (1841-1900). Reel four contains miscellaneous records on observations of the Liberal File (1853-1856) and a women's rights meeting (1851), an essay by Oran Hazard on slavery (1796), taxes for the Enos Painter estate (1864-1873), and travel guides of the United States and Canada (1844, 1874). Reels five and six contain the shelf list cards for the John J. Tyler Arboretum Library.

This collection includes letters, diaries, notebooks, and early photographs, relating primarily to the Wister family of Germantown and Philadelphia. Much of the correspondence concerns domestic news and consists of letters from or to Sarah Wister. These include interesting observations on Germantown and Philadelphia society from other families as well, such as the Bayntons and Bullocks. There are numerous letters from various Wisters, including Casper, Charles Jones, Elizabeth (including a journal of a trip to Bristol, 1783), Hannah, John, Owen Jones, and others. There is also poetry by Sarah.