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These files have been compiled by the Rare Book and Manuscript Library from its origin in 1930 through the present day. The material derives largely from gifts, and the occasional purchase; much of the subject file in particular is made of ephemera included in the American Type Founders, Co. Library, purchased in 1942. Prospectuses and information sent by fine presses and book artists are added to the relevant files in an ongoing fashion. The files cover subjects from the beginning of printing to the current day.

Collection of visiting cards of musical artists (composers, vocalists, conductors, etc.) and authors, presidents, and other celebrities of the 19th and 20th centuries, most bearing handwritten messages. There are also photographs and other memorabilia.

Correspondence, copies of letters, documents, manuscripts, invitations, menus, clippings, school papers, leases, agreements, deeds, financial accounts, photographs, and printed miscellany. The papers deal with many aspects of the Belmont family interests from 1799 until 1930, including: finance, banking and the Rothschilds; the United States Navy, Commodore Matthew C. Perry (1794-1858) and the Perry expeditions to Mexico and Japan; Belmont's embassy to The Netherlands from 1853 to 1857; the Democratic Party, New York City politics, presidential and Civil War politics; social life in New York and Newport and European travel; horses, horse breeding, The Jockey Club, polo, the Remount Association (for cavalry horses in World War I), fox hunting, dog breeding, and yachting; New York subway construction, railroads, the Cape Cod Canal and aviation; the Democratic Convention of 1912; and genealogical notes on the Belmont, Perry, and other families. In addition to the correspondence, there are 117 letter books, tissue-paper copies of outgoing letters.

Correspondence, documents and manuscripts from late seventeenth and eighteenth century France, especially from the French Revolution, collected by Sam Schaefler. Authors include J.B. Colbert Torcy and the Duchesse Du Lude. Many of the items from the French Revolution represent the work of the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security. French Revolutionary leaders represented in the collection include François-Antoine Boissy D'Anglas, Jean-Baptiste-Noel Bouchotte, Pierre Joseph Cambon, Lazare Carnot, Jean-Marie Collot D'Herbois, l'Abbʹe de Fauchet, Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai, Jean Victor Moreau. C.A. Prieur-Duvernois, and Antoine Joseph Santerre. In addition, the collection includes a letter from the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted to Sir John Herschel, a letter by the French poet Romain Rolland, a document of the Philadelphia Artists' Fund Society of 1846 with signatures of its officers, and an autograph letter and a photograph of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Fourteen letters, 1897-1901, twelve from Theodore Roosevelt and one from George B. Cortelyou on behalf of Roosevelt, to Brooklyn police sergeant Frank Rathgeber. Also, fifteen letters from Roosevelt to Richard Harding Davis.

The group of letters written by Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) and members of his family to Brander Matthews are mounted on the blank leaves of two volumes. The majority of the material (240 letters and cards) were written by Theodore Roosevelt. These are personal letters which reflect his many interests and activities dealing with such subjects as his own writings and publications, opinions of contemporary literature, Matthews' system of reformed English spelling and Roosevelt's attempt to introduce this into the publications of the Government Printing Office, travels, friends, meetings, and social events. Also, ten letters and cards from Edith Kermit Roosevelt to the Matthews family and a few items from other members of the Roosevelt family. The letters are in typescript and script and are dated from various places in this country and abroad.

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, and memorabilia of Helen May MacLachlan. There are 570 letters from John Masefield and his wife to James Alexander MacLachlan, his wife Mary, and their children Howard James and Helen, 1916-1966, autograph poetry manuscripts, drawings, clippings, and 43 books presented by Masefield to Helen MacLachlan. Also, correspondence about the Theodore Roosevelt Association from Horace Marden Albright, Ethel Roosevelt Derby, Hermann Hagedorn, and others as well as correspondence from personal friends; and photographs of the MacLachlan family and friends.

Files of political correspondence and papers of Tanner. The majority of the correspondence deals with city and state elections. The correspondents include Charles Evans Hughes, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Fiorello La Guardia. Also, a collection of eighteen scrapbooks.

The correspondence covers personal and business matters of Gage. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence from Orville Peckham, counsel for the First National Bank of Chicago, concerning the financial matters of Secretary Gage. Also, correspondence with members of the Gage family dealing with Lyman's wayward son Eli. The remainder of the collection includes correspondence congratulating Gate on his appointment as Secretary of the Treasury, and letters of condolence on the death of his second wife, Mrs. Cornelia Washburne Gage in 1901. Among the notable items are a letter from Theodore Roosevelt expressing regret at Mr. Gage's resignation from the Treasury Dept.; and an engraved certificate admitting Gage to membership in the Knights of Labor, signed by Terence V. Powderley.

Letters to and copies of letters, letter books, and miscellaneous papers of (George) Frederick William Holls. There is also an amount of clippings and other miscellanea. The correspondence is with many persons important in the areas of politics and education. The subject content of the letters is international in scope, including such matters as the Suez Canal, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, the Dreyfus affair, the Hague Peace Conference, Rhodes Scholarships, unification of education in New York State, the St. Louis Exposition, and tenement reform. Among the principal correspondents represented by groups of letters are John Barrett, Nicholas Murray Butler, Henry W. Diederick, Theodor Lange, Hugo Munsterburg, F.J. Odendahl, Theodore Roosevelt, and Carl Schurz.