Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company began operation in 1831 as a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware. After the Civil War, the company concentrated on finishing cotton cloth. "A Century of Fine Cloth, 1831-1931" is a typescript history of the first 100 years of the company, with emphasis on the personal life of the company's founder, Joseph Bancroft (1803-1874), and his immediate successors.

Bessie Gardner du Pont (1864-1949) wrote several publications on the du Pont family and E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co's history. This collection contains photocopies and microfilm of "Notes for History," notes she compiled for her study E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., a history, 1802-1902 (Boston, 1920).

Belle M. Sherman (1851-1930) was a New York writer, translator, and editor who edited the women's page of the New York Herald, and wrote for magazines such as Colliers and the old Cosmopolitan under the byline of Mrs. B.M. Sherman or Belle M. Sherman. The collection contains incoming letters, the bulk from her son, Walter Magee Annette (1874-1955), but also her daughter-in-law Jane Nuckols (1878-unknown), and a column reader.

Jill Jonnes (1952-) is a freelance writer who has published a number of books on technology and society, including Conquering Gotham in 2007, which is an account of the design and construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad's New York improvements. The collection is comprised of Jonnes' research notes for writing the book, almost entirely of photocopies of letters, reports, newspaper articles, and extracts from books.

Kim Burdick is a public historian, preservationist and former advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Louise du Pont Crowninshield (1877-1958) was an early leader in the field of historic preservation. The collection includes photocopies of all known surviving Crowninshield letters and Burdick's notes.

Gertrude Ruhnka (1891-1981) was a research librarian at the Huntington Library in California. The collection contains her unpublished manuscript, "Love for life: a self-portrait of the first three generations of du Ponts in America, 1791-1834," and two letters from Ruhnka to J.B. Lippincott Company and Dr. Walter J. Heacock of the Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation.

The papers document the lives and careers of three generations of the immediate and extended family that began with famed Civil War officer Montgomery C. Meigs (1816-1892). The most notable members include his son, engineer Montgomery Meigs (1847-1931) and granddaughter and author Cornelia Meigs (1884-1973). The materials are about equally divided between professional activities and domestic family concerns.