Brandywine Springs, located on the Newport-Gap Turnpike about five miles west of Wilmington, Delaware, was first developed as a spa by the Brandywine Chalybeate Springs Company in 1827. Richard W. Crook (1850-1948) later leased the property in 1886 and converted it into a typical nineteenth-century streetcar amusement park, although he was unable to complete the streetcar connection with Wilmington until 1901. The entries in the ledger are in the hand of William Jenks Fell (1839-1903), the lessor of the park, and describe expenditures on improving the rides and concessions.

The Fell family established spice mills in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1766, purveyed by the mid-nineteenth century ground spices, coffees, chocolates, and mustards, as well as drugs and flour. In 1828, Jonathan Fell (1771-1829) bought Oliver Evans' (1755-1819) mill at Faulkland from John Foulk (1780-1850). On Fell's death in 1829, the firm was managed by his two eldest sons, Courtland J. Fell (1803-1848) and Thomas Jenks Fell (1805-1834), as C.J. Fell & Bro.; after their deaths, by their brothers Franklin Fell (1814-1875) and Jonathan Fell, Jr. (1816-1868). The latter, a physician, gradually left its management to his brother Franklin Fell and son William Jenks Fell (1839-1903). The Fell family papers consist of business and personal papers documenting the manufacturing business, C.J. Fell & Bro. Franklin Fell (1814-1875) and his son William Jenks Fell (1839-1903) papers form the bulk of the collection. The papers are arranged into seven series: Early papers, C.J. Fell & Bro. papers, Courtland J. Fell (1803-1848) papers, Jonathan Fell (1816-1868) papers, Franklin Fell (1814-1875) papers, William Jenks Fell papers, and Various papers.