This commonplace book is filled mostly with poetry and quotations from printed materials.

These papers contain seven letters to his wife (1808-1833), a fragment of autobiography on his painting and studies, a notebook containing copies of correspondence about his portrait of Washington, John Godman's Ode suggested by Rembrandt Peale's National Portrait of Washington (1824), and a commonplace book containing kitchen and medicinal recipes.

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 correspondence to and from Boskovic; a travel journal in Europe; and a large number of manuscripts on astronomy, hydrography, hydro-mechanics, mathematics, geometry, mechanics, and optics; and a volume of poetry.

The manuscripts of father William Mitchell and daughter Maria Mitchell are not easily separated, and are treated here together. The collection includes William Mitchell's autobiography, his memoir of Judge Walter Folger of Nantucket, astronomical and meteorological observations, lectures, family and other correspondence.