Elizabeth Webb (1663-1726) was a minister of the Society of Friends, wife of Richard Webb of Gloucestershire, England, and later of Birmingham Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Her journal is a record of Webb's first visit to America in 1697 with her companion, Mary Rogers.

The Bancroft family owned and operated the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company, a cotton cloth manufacturer in Rockford, Delaware, beginning in 1831. The records document the activities of two generations of the Bancroft family in England and America and consist primarily of account books from the various family businesses, including the Todmorden and Brandywine woolen mills and the Rockford cotton mill.

Stewart Huston (1898-1971) began his career as a metallurgist and worked in varying capacities in the family business, Lukens Steel Company, in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, from 1923 until his death. Assembled by Huston, the collection relates to genealogy and family history.

J. Edgar Rhoads (1883-1981) was a partner and eventually head of J.E. Rhoads & Sons, a commercial tannery that specialized in the manufacturing of leather belts for mechanical applications. In his oral history, Rhoads recalls the major events in his life to about 1950, with considerable background material on his family. Additionally, he discusses his family's company, J.E. Rhoads & Sons, rural childhood, civic and charitable activities, particularly his work in Europe after both world wars and with the United China Relief.

The Lea family was among the largest flour mill operators at the Brandywine Falls, near Wilmington, Delaware, since the 1770s, when Thomas Lea (1757–1823) joined in partnership with Joseph Tatnall (1740–1813) to operate mills on the north bank of the stream. This small collection of Lea family papers documents Delaware and Pennsylvania land use and ownership, elite family and social relationships, and agricultural business operations from the early eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. The materials are from four generations of the William Lea (1805-1876) family lineage. The collection is arranged into four series: Real estate and financial papers, Correspondence, Personal papers, and Newspaper clippings.

Founded in 1831 as the Elkinton Company and later renamed, Philadelphia Quartz Company became an important innovator during World War I by discovering that silica gels could be used as a base to manufacture catalysts for cracking crude oil molecules to make high-octane gasoline and developing potassium silicate which was adopted for use in cathode ray tubes. The company's records includes business records and the personal papers of the company's founding family.

Personal and business diaries of Thomas Savery documenting his career from 1864 to 1910 that include technical drawings and experimental data used in developing his patented papermaking machinery. Savery's career as machine shop foreman and general manager at Pusey & Jones is also described. The day to day activities of the shops in which he worked are detailed as well as his income, expenses, and investments. Among projects noted is the construction of Machinery Hall at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. There are also discussions of his involvement in the Harper Ferry Electric Light & Power Company, York Haven Water & Power Company and York Haven Paper Company. There is a volume detailing his involvement in the Denver pulp and paper industry. Savery's involvement with the Wilmington Board of Trade and the Society of Friends are described in these volumes. There are also numerous notations on his personal and cultural life.

Thomas H. Savery (1837-1910) was president of Pusey, Jones and Company, a ship builder and manufacturer of papermaking machinery in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Thomas H. Savery, Jr. (1871-1930), the second son of Savery, followed in his father's footsteps in the pulp and paper industry. The records consist of two private journals from the youth of Thomas H. Savery and his son, Thomas H. Savery, Jr.

The Wood family was founders of one of Philadelphia's great Quaker mercantile and manufacturing families, and within a couple of generations founded the Wawa Dairy Farms. The papers were primarily collected by Julianna Randolph (1810-1885), wife of Richard D. Wood (1799-1869), and include correspondence from Julianna Randolph, her parents Edward (1784-1834) and Mary Taylor Randolph (1790-1868), and her husband Richard Wood. The letters are almost entirely limited to correspondence within the Wood-Randolph kinship group.

Papers of four generations of the Wright family of Monmouth County, New Jersey, and Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, particularly of Samuel G. Wright (1781-1845), Philadelphia merchant and general entrepreneur, and his son, Harrison Gardiner Wright (1810-1885), a gentleman farmer.