After receiving his PhB at Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1858, Alfred P. Rockwell continued his studies at the Museum of Practical Geology in London and the Bergakademie Freiberg, focused largely on mining engineering and coal geology. After service in the Civil War, he held positions at Yale and MIT before leaving academia in 1873 to pursue other opportunities. He later served as president of the Eastern Rail Road and Treasurer of the Great Falls Manufacturing Company, a textile firm in New Hampshire. The small collection of the papers of Alfred P. Rockwell document his interest in coal geology during the period of his postgraduate study at the Museum of Practical Geology and the Bergakademie, 1858-1859. Although the correspondence is slight, the collection includes a suite of notes on collieries, coal mining technology, and the economics of coal. Of particular note in the collection are the eight notebooks on mining engineering (some containing sketches), including two volumes of notes on John Percy's lectures at the Museum of Practical Geology, 1858, three volumes kept during his stay at the Bergakademie Freiberg, including one on a course on metallurgy taught by Bernhard von Cotta, 1858-1859, and one of an industrial tour through Germany and Belgium (June 1859). The other volumes include two on collieries in northern England, and one including of production records for the Great Falls Manufacturing Company, 1879-1886.