This volume contains extracts, chiefly in an unknown hand (probably Charles Waterton), from Ord's letters, 1831-1835, criticizing Audubon as a man and as a naturalist. Ord wrote the last part of the volume (signed and dated June 29, 1838), and there are manuscript comments by Charles Waterton.

The papers of the Italian natural philosopher and electrician, Giambatista Beccaria (1716-1781) contain letters to Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Banks, Laura Bassi, Gian Francesco Cigna, and others on a variety of scientific topics, including atmospheric and terrestrial electricity, the aurora borealis, earthquakes, meteorology, and phosphorescence. In addition to Beccaria's epistolary essays, the collection includes several journals of meteorological observations and notes for Giovanni Eandi's biography of Beccaria.

The correspondence is principally to Zaccheus Collins (1810-1840), with bills, receipts, and notes on Rafinesque vs. Parker; letters from Collins, L.A. Tarascon, Lewis C. Beck, John Torrey, and Charles W. Short (1817-1835); and miscellaneous correspondence and documents relating to Rafinesque vs. Parker, with an account of the Felician Society of Feliciana County, Illinois (1820). The writings are chiefly on botanical topics, and include notes and essays on Indians, Blacks, grapes and wine-making, banking, and speculation. Rafinesque's growing interest in Indian antiquities, linguistics, and history is apparent in letters after 1820. There is an account of Rafinesque's scientific travels in North America and southern Europe (1800-1832), and a bibliography. The botanical notes include descriptions of specimens collected by Lewis and Clark, Patrick Gass, and Henry Muhlenberg.

The Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin prepared by Isaac Minis Hays for the bicentennial of Franklin's birth in 1906 provides access to the largest portion of the Franklin Papers at the APS. The items were originally bound into volumes in roughly chronological order, with letters to Franklin preceding those from Franklin and at the end of the collection, Franklin's letters owned by the University of Pennsylvania. Each manuscript is still identified by Hays' reference numbers, which include a roman numeral refering to the original volume followed by an arabic number to identify the folio. The electronic version of the finding aid replicates Hays' calendar, including the introductory material and item-level descriptions. It has been updated to reflect corrections in the metadata, corrections of personal names, dates, and description.