This collection consists of two manuscript diaries of engineer James Brindley (1745-1820). Brindley, nephew of the celebrated English canal engineer of the same name, worked on a number of canal projects in the United States, including the Potomac Canal in Maryland and the James River Canal in Virginia. The two diaries cover part of the time Brindley worked on the Susquehanna and Conewago Canal in 1794-1795 and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in 1803.

This journal documents the construction of the Lick Observatory building on Mt. Hamilton. It is a continuous record from 16 June 1880 to 30 October 1887.

This treatise includes experiments on eletricity (with mentions of B. Franklin), ballooning (mentions of J. P. Blanchard), pharmacology, chemistr, and hydraulics. Included is a sketch of Woulfe's bottle for passing gases through liquids (Peter Woulfe, 1767).

These volumes reflect the activities of sugar estates located in Penang, part of the Settlement of Penang, off the northwest coast of Malaya. Many of the papers are documents and letters passing between the owner of these estates and the plantation overseers. The materials document the business administration of the plantations, including machinery, crop experimentation, and labor problems. Frequent references are made to the West Indian Estates in Demerara, British Guiana, with comparisons to the East and West Indies sugar industries.

This diary records the travels of Loammi Baldwin in the Netherlands (then including Belgium), England, and France, with detailed observations and careful pen-and-ink sketches of canals and canal machinery.

This is an edited draft of Baruch's speech, which he dedicates on the first page to Herbert Swope, his speech writer, whom he notes is responsible for much of it. It is his exhortation to the Commission, and to the world, for the necessity of controlling atomic energy, and the steps to such control. Signatures of American delegates at the end are by: John M. Hancock, Richard C. Tolman, Leslie R. Groves, Tom Farrell, F. Eberstadt, Fred Searls, Jr., and Baruch. There is also the signature of Herbert Vere Evatt, the Australian delegate.