The Chamber of Commerce of the United States is the world’s largest business organization representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions. This collection contains photographs, negatives, slides, digital images, sound recordings, videos, and films that document the history of the Chamber from its founding to the twenty-first century. The materials provide a record not only of the activities of the Chamber but also of the political landscape surrounding key issues related to business. The collection focuses on the legislation, regulations, and litigation impacting the economy, immigration reform, pensions, health care, trade, Social Security, air quality, global warming, workplace safety, and taxes, as well as major industries such as energy, aviation, automobiles, agriculture, transportation,mining, shipping, and technology.

The Collection of Philadelphia merchants records comprises the papers of major and minor merchant houses in Philadelphia throughout the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and primarily documents trade with major port cities in Western Europe and the West Indies. Included are the papers of merchants Andrew Clow & Co., Dutilh & Wachsmuth, Manuel Eyre, and George Louis de Stockar, along with records of other miscellaneous merchants from the Philadelphia area. The records include correspondence, accounts, bills, orders, invoices and other material that give insight into the rise of capitalism in the Early Republic.

Edward Graham Jefferson (1921-2006) was a research chemist and chief executive officer of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Jefferson's papers consist of his "personal" business files, and do not include his official correspondence as CEO of the DuPont Company. The papers primarily reflect Jefferson's "Head of State" role at DuPont and his membership on the boards of numerous business, trade, and educational organizations. The papers have been arranged in three series: DuPont Company and personal activities, Outside board memberships, and Speeches.

Ernest Munster (1885-1965) was an attorney and organized Lawyers International Corporation in 1930, with its office in New York City. Munster, the company's president, continued his association with the company through at least the mid-1940s. The Ernest Munster papers reflect his work which necessitated his familiarity with international trade and incorporation laws and taxation policies. The collection primarily consists of records Munster maintained during his years as president of Lawyers International Corporation, with some papers dating back to his employment with International Corporation Company in the late 1930s.

Lanman & Kemp was a multi-generational family firm of wholesale druggists in New York City. Their records document the operations of the wholesale drug business in the years before the development of modern pharmaceuticals. They also show the importance of New York City as a center for the import, export and re-export business and of London bankers in financing international trade and extending credit.

Lynch and Stoughton was a New York mercantile firm that traded extensively with Spain, Portugal, Holland, the West Indies, Florida, Ireland, and China, in the coasting trade between Pennsylvania and New England, and with the interior of New York State. The ledger documents the firm's mercantile business between 1783 and 1788. The ledger appears to have later been passed down through several generations of the Stow family of New York and Michigan, who used it as a scrapbook for scrap paper and practicing penmanship.

Masters & Markoe was a mercantile house which operated throughout the early nineteenth century. Most of the records date from the period 1810 to 1814 and document the West Indian trade of Markoe & Masters. The collection consists of the business correspondence and accounts records which shows that the firm was primarily involved with the importation of sugar from Santa Cruz (St. Croix). The company also imported molasses, rum, coffee, mahogany, and logwood. There are also personal papers of the firms co-founder, Thomas Masters (1781-1844) and members of his family.

The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) was established on May 28, 1914 to coordinate the foreign trade activities of the United States. The convention appointed thirty-five delegates to serve as charter members of the NFTC, with James A. Farrell (1863-1943), then-President of U.S. Steel, the new organization's first chairman. Records chronicle U.S. corporate policy toward the most pressing issues of foreign trade in the twentieth century.

The Phillips family were prominent Philadelphia merchants and manufacturers over four generations. The records consist of four volumes of merchant and importer William Phillips (1771-1845), a daybook from the textile firm of Lewis, Phillips & Co., and an unrelated receipt book of Philadelphia wine merchant Francis Coppinger, dating from 1794 to 1795.