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The papers of Anna Maria (Campbell Hickman) Otis Mead Chalmers (1809-1891) and her family offer a deep look into a 19th century American family with a sharp focus on enslaved and formerly enslaved persons. The collection documents the life of a young, widowed woman, Anna Maria Mead Chalmers, who was the granddaughter of General William Hull (1753-1825). She was a mother of four children and became a businesswoman in Richmond, Virginia. She was a writer, an editor of the Southern Churchmen, an educator and founder of Mrs. Mead's School for Young Ladies, and a director of The Southern Churchmen Cot ("Retreat for the Sick"), a hospital for children. Anna Maria's family enslaved people who are represented in the papers including Othello "Tillo" Freeman (1790's-1860's?). It includes a letter from William written in [1875], who was their carriage driver, and letters about Sam the fiddler, who settled on the farm after escaping harsher enslavement in Louisianna, and Jordan who was described as being hired out in a letter dated September 8, 1841 from Thomas R. Blair.

Correspondence and genealogical materials related to the William B. Edwards family of King George County, Virginia, and the Capt. William Sommerville family of Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia) from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These families were joined when Elizabeth Sommerville (1812-1886), daughter of the Revolutionary War veteran, married William B. Edwards (1810-1888), a Methodist clergyman from a planter family, in 1833.

Miscellaneous papers collected by the Clarksburg Public Library, including Harrison County land papers of John Lang, 1782-1821; General Land Office Warrant of Thomas Cunningham, an 1812 veteran for 160 acres in Illinois; letter from Melville D. Long from Point Lookout prison, April 1865; letter to Mrs. John J. Davis, Clarksburg, telling of an unexpected invasion of Baltimore by the Rebels in July 1854; and farm diary, 1856-1861 of P.R. Page, Gloucester County, Virginia. This volumes gives accurate and detailed information on the operation of a grain and livestock farm in eastern Virginia

This collection consists of papers collected by various members of the Peter families. It includes letters from George Washington, letters of condolence to Martha Washington after George Washington's death, estate documents, Major George Peter's military papers, land plats and surveys, photo albums, letterbooks, and notebooks that tell of the life of this prominent family in Virginia and the City of Washington.

John M. McCalla (1793-1873) of Lexington, Kentucky, was an attorney and U.S. Marshall. McCalla's papers from 1812 to 1899 are available only on six reels of microfilm. They include correspondence from 1815 to 1870; ten letter books from 1829 to 1867; account books from 1849 to 1865; clipping books; lectures; and legal and business papers related to McCalla's activities as U.S. Marshall in the District of Kentucky from 1830 to 1841, attorney, and agent in Lexington, Kentucky, and Washington, D.C. McCalla represented clients in land settlements, pension and military claims, and estate settlements. Subjects include McCalla's church, Masonic, and political affiliations and activities as well as family affairs. Letters from military associates primarily relate to battle experiences and property losses, chiefly from the Battle at River Raisin in Frenchtown, Michigan, during the War of 1812; the Battle at Vera Cruz during the Mexican War; Civil War conditions in the St. Louis area; and seizure of pistols and cannon by the U.S. government in the 1860s. A more detailed inventory is available in the Center.

This collection of historic manuscripts dates from 1607-1933, with the bulk of materials dating from 1738-1868. The correspondence, journals and diaries, legal and financial records, estate documents, and printed ephemera in the collection primarily relate to the Washington and Custis families, the Revolutionary War, and society life in antebellum Washington D.C. and Virginia.