John Watson (1774-1864), a Quaker, worked as a land surveyor in Pennsylvania during the early nineteenth century. The collection consists of five volumes relating to the construction of the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal.

Joseph Lincoln Gillson (1895-1964) was the chief geologist for the DuPont Company's Development Department from 1929 to 1960. As chief geologist he traveled all over the world making explorations in search of sulfur, ilmenite, fluorspar, barytes, celestite, and other raw materials, as well as conducting investigations in search of ground water supplies, foundations, and general site studies. This is a small collection that consists of a set of notebooks and related documents from Gillson's time working for the DuPont Company, as well as a set of papers and related documents from consulting projects he did during his retirement.

Penn Virginia Corporation was an oil and gas company, incorporated as the Virginia Coal & Iron Company on January 6, 1882. It was one of many firms established by a group of interrelated entrepreneurs headed by John Leisenring (1819-1884), a Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, civil and mining engineer. The name changed to Penn Virigina Corporation in 1967. The records of Penn Virginia Corporation cover the development and operations of the Virginia Coal & Iron Company, a large southern Appalachian land company, with some information on its immediate neighbors and local support facilities.

The largest portion of the records deals with the Sparrows Point plant when operated by the Maryland Steel Company. It includes organization and title papers, organization charts, maps and drawings and financial and operating statements. The records give considerable information on Wood's technical contributions, including patents for mill improvements, notebooks covering production and tests and descriptions of the organizaton of work. There is also correspondence with salesmen and customers, notes on wages and working conditions and comparative reports on other British and American iron and steel works. There is particularly rich documentation on the construction and functioning of the company town.