Account books were maintained by individuals and business as a way to keep track of financial transactions. This collection includes thirty-eight account books from twenty-five different businesses and individuals in the Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania area, with one additional account book from San Francisco County, California.

The Forwood family were farmers whose homestead comprised 124 acres located on Marsh Road in Brandywine Hundred, north of Wilmington, Delaware. Corn, oats, and wheat were grown on the property, which had been a marsh. During the first decade of the nineteenth century, the Forwood family began to purchase and sell livestock. The Forwood farm was a major timber supplier to the DuPont Company. The Forwood family account books, spanning the century between 1790 and 1889, were kept by various family members. There are records for the Brandywine Hundred Horse Company and a book of sketches and poems by women in the circle of Du Pont family and friends.

Henry Algernon du Pont (1838-1926) was a military officer, a politician from Delaware, and vice president of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. The letter from du Pont to F.G. [Frederick G.] Larned (1860-1937) of Poland, New York, explains the position and duties of the man he wishes to employ on his farm at Winterthur.

More than half of the mushrooms in the United States are grown in and around the town of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, which calls itself the "mushroom capital of the world." Walter W. Maule (1892-1964) and Charles C. Brosius (1930-), both Chester County, Pennsylvania, mushroom growers, were active in professional trade associations and advocates for their industry. This small collection on the mushroom industry consists of papers that document mushroom industry educational courses and professional trade associations. The collection provides insight into the role profession trade associations such as the Mushroom Growers Cooperative Association, the Mushroom Cooperative Canning Association, and the American Mushroom Insitute agriculturual play in affecting legislation and mushroom farming practices.

William W. Morris (1869-1931) was a farmer in Greenwood, Sussex County, Delaware. This is a collection of miscellaneous bills, checks, and receipts that was preserved primarily as a sample of late nineteenth century letterheads and billheads, although it also documents the typical purchases of a downstate Delaware farmer.