The papers are primarily from Samuel and Isaac W. Morris. However, the collection includes papers from other family members from the first Anthony Morris to John Thompson Morris (1847-1915), the founder of the Morris Arboretum in Germantown. There are also papers from members of the Wistar, Paschall, and Mifflin families allied by marriage.

The papers of Samuel Morris include account books, bank books, letter books, correspondence, bills, and deeds. Included are Revolutionary War accounts for hospital and commissary supplies, including accounts of Thomas Stockton at Princeton and John Connor at Valley Forge. The letter books contain a copy of his letter of resignation as commander of the Troop of Light Horse, as well as correspondence relating to his service as Commissary General, his mercantile ventures with his brother Israel Morris and the firm of Morris & Miercken, merchants and sugar refiners. Records of Morris' commissary activities with Pennsylvania hospitals include accounts of the physicians Jonathan Potts, William Shippen, and Thomas Bond. There are also records of the sale of slaves in Trenton, N.J., in 1781, of loans to the Batsto Iron Works, and a plat of the Durham Estate.

The papers of Isaac Wistar Morris include account books, bank books, two letter books (1811-1830), loose correspondence, bills, and deeds. Many of the papers pertain to the family's land holdings in the Philadelphia area and in the northern and western counties of Pennsylvania. The papers also contain material relating to Cedar Grove, the Paschall family estate near Philadelphia, including an inventory of 1831 and notes on the architectural history of the house by Fiske Kimball. Other papers document Morris' role as treasurer of the Friends' Committee for Indian Affairs (1822-1829); his partnership in Kimber, Conrad & Co., booksellers; and as one of the managers of the Westtown School (1812-1824), including lists of legacies, gifts, donors, and debts.

Among the other family members, Dr. Benjamin Morris is represented by a series of letters written while in London and on the Continent as a medical student (1748-1753) which reveal his close association with the eminent London Quaker physician, Dr. John Fothergill. Israel Morris is represented by papers from the mercantile firm of Forbes & Morris. Isaac Paschall Morris is represented by about 70 items, including a recipe book for compounding prescriptions for humans and animals (1824), a booklet on smelting silver ore, and two items from the I.P. Morris Co. John T. Morris is represented by 30 items, including some of his papers as overseer of public schools in Philadelphia.

Papers of allied families include receipt books of Elizabeth Coates Paschall of Cedar Grove (1741-1762), business letters of New York merchant John Franklin, brother-in-law of Samuel Morris, and land records and estate papers of the Wistar family.

Among the miscellany are two printed genealogies of the Wistar family, a history of the Francis Perot's Sons Malting Company of Philadelphia (founded in 1687), a pamphlet issued by British Quakers against the slave trade (1822), a broadside issued by the mayor of Philadelphia in connection with the nativist riots of 1844, and a broadside promoting the proposed Southwark Canal in Philadelphia.