These letters and papers include a memorandum book (1795-1827), lectures on botany and medicine, genealogical materials, committee reports from Columbia College, speeches, minutes of the New York Horticultural Society (1822-1828), letters to Sir James Edward Smith (1817-1826), a receipt book of Alexander Hosack (1781-1801), and diaries of Thomas K. Wharton (1830-1862).

Transcripts and photocopies of Correia de Serra correspondence, made by Richard B. Davis for "The Abbé Correa in America," APS Transactions 45, 2 (1955). Seven mss. letters are also included.

Letters and papers to or from American scientists or about America, selected from the Linnean Society's collections. Includes letters to William Swainson from John Abbott, John J. Audubon, Constantine S. Rafinesque, Isaac Lea, and John E. LeConte; letters to Sir James Edward Smith from Jacob Bigelow, DeWitt Clinton, J.F. Correia da Serra, David Hosack, Theodore Lyman, William Dandridge Peck, Rafinesque, and Gotthilf H.E. Muhlenberg; letters to William Darlington; letters to Asa Gray; letters of John Bartram; letters of Peter Collinson to J.F. Gronovius; letters and papers of John Ellis, including letters from Alexander Garden, Samuel Martin, and Bernard Romans; letters to Carl Linnaeus from John Bartram, John Clayton, Cadwallader Colden, Correia da Serra, Peter Kalm, Adam Kuhn, James Logan, John Mitchell, and Charles Wrangel.

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.