These account books record receipts and expenditures, interest, profit and loss, repairs, stock shares, wages, income tax, etc.

The letters to Persifor Frazer cover primarily matters related to geology and mineralogy. A portion of the correspondence, principally from British scientists, concerns the 1884 meeting in Philadelphia of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (B F867).

The collection is a miscellaneous group of letters of mainly British scientists and physicians, purchased as an existing autograph collection. There are a few American signatures. The letters are primarily from the nineteenth century and focus on medical and geological topics, but also there are some earlier and later dates. In addition to the letters are anatomical drawings of surgery, sketches of bones, and one geological notebook.

A miscellaneous collection of letters, mainly of English scientists, written to various people. There are mostly one or two letters, except for those of John Peter Gassiot, William Huggins, Edwin R. Lankester, James Mackintosh, David Prain, and William Whewell.

Mentioned in these letters are personal affairs, experiments, Babbage's calculating machine, and his "Bridgewater Treatise," second edition.

There is correspondence concerning geology, botany, natural history, natural selection, evolution, British science and scientists, and other scientific topics. Most of the letters are written by Lyell, with a very few items by others.