Since its first class of six graduates and one honoree in 1748, Princeton University has awarded over 80,000 diplomas. This collection contains 213 original diplomas and photostats, including executed diplomas as well as blank, sample or spoiled diplomas.

Series 1: Diplomas from the Princeton University Archives Oversize Collection, 1749-1998 (bulk 1749-1926) consists of 183 original diplomas and photostats, as well as a small number of blank, sample or spoiled diplomas.

Series 2: General Files, 1749-1947, consists of a broad group of materials touching on issues relating to Princeton life and history. Researchers should consult the container listing for the best accounting of this series. Interesting items include a letter with the earliest-known account of the College of New Jersey, circa 1749-1750 (see Princeton Alumni Weekly, 3/11/1905); a group of letters to and from Joseph Shippen, Class of 1756, describing military actions in the French and Indian War and mentioning Wolfe, Amherst, Ticonderoga and Fort Duquesne (1756-1758); a pencil sketch of three Princeton students being escorted to the depot after having been suspended for "pumping" a secessionist (1861); a letter by P. Glennon from Washington D.C., dated July 10, 1861, discussing activities of the Union Army prior to the First Battle of Bull Run; a letter from Ralph Vaughn Williams turning down an invitation to compose a work for the Princeton Chapel (1937). There is also a small general file at the conclusion of this series containing unidentified materials.

The Pyne-Henry Collection is a diverse group of documents, letters and writings relating to Princeton University, covering an array of topics primarily concerning student life and administrative activities. The collection consists of letters, essays and orations, reports, memoranda, minutes, proclamations, accounts and class lists, and other documents written by students, faculty and administrators which, along with other administrative records and Trustee Minutes, constitute the earliest records and documentary history of the University. Most of these papers and records were amassed by Princeton alumni Moses Taylor Pyne (Class of 1877) and Bayard Henry (Class of 1876) during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

The July 2009 Accession contains historical documents originating in the offices of the Linkages and Learning Team (Nicola Armacost, Director) and Presidents Mary Ellen Iskenderian, Nancy Barry, and Michaela Walsh. They pertain to workshops, programs, training, media coverage, and meetings. Materials include compact disks, correspondence, newletters, and reports.

Consists of documents representing at least three generations of the Pierson family of Orange, New Jersey, including Isaac Pierson (1770-1833, Princeton Class of 1789), a physician, his son William (1796-1882, Princeton Class of 1816), a physician and first mayor of Orange, and William's sons Edward (d. 1882, Princeton Class of 1854), a lawyer, and William, Jr. (1830-1900), also a physician.

This group of material relates to five generations of the Trenton branch of the Scudder family. The first generation is represented by Richard Betts Scudder (1670-1754) with an appointment as lieutenant in a British company of foot soldiers in Burlington County from 1711 and two inventories relating to his Trenton estate, both dating 1754. For Richard Betts Scudder's grandsons Daniel Scudder (1736-1811) and Amos Scudder (1739-1824), there is an indenture dating 1770. Daniel Scudder's grandsons, John Scudder (1796-1840), Jasper Smith Scudder (1797-1877), and Abner Scudder (1800-1878), are represented by two indentures as well as a receipt for a slave named Samuel Conover, all dated 1825. Edward Wallace Scudder (1822-1893), son of Jasper Smith Scudder, is represented in two documents: a print of the members of the Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey in 1886 and an invitation to a World's Columbian Exposition event in 1892. Finally, the class notebooks of Wallace M. Scudder (1853-1931), son of Edward Wallace Scudder, are present in the collection and provide information regarding his training as an engineer at Lehigh University, circa 1869 to 1873, and his training as a lawyer at Harvard University from 1879 to 1881. The last items in this group of materials are a draft and final version of an article for the newsletter titled "The Scudder Association, Inc.," dating 1983. This newsletter and the drafts contain biographical information on Edward Wallace Scudder (1822-1893), Wallace McIlvaine Scudder (1853-1931), and Edward Wallace Scudder, II (1882-1953).

Westfield, New Jersey, was part of Elizabethtown from the time it was settled in late 1664 until 1794, when the Township of Westfield was created. The New Jersey Documents Collections, 1601 to 1983, consists of New Jersey legal documents, the bulk of which are from the town of Westfield, Union County, and include land records, financial records, estate records, and court records, many of which were created by various members of the Baker, Downer, Hetfield, Johnson, Miller, Pierson, Ripley, Ross, and Woodruff families. The majority of the collection material dates from 1750 to 1890.

Consists of correspondence and documents of Jonathan Belcher, dating from his early years in Massachusetts to his days as colonial governor of New Jersey.

Mary Mapes Dodge was an author and editor of St. Nicholas magazine. This collection consists of manuscripts and correspondence concerning St. Nicholas, and correspondence, documents, photographs, and memorabilia relating to the Dodge family.

Series 1 consists of proposals and surveys compiled by the Office of Occupational Health and Safety in regards to radiation safety measures taken to protect workers and researchers at the Princeton-Pennsylvania Accelerator, a particle research facility that operated on Forrestal Campus from 1957 to 1971.

Consists of the correspondence of Alfred Marshall Mayer, his son Alfred Goldsborough Mayer, and Alpheus Hyatt with individuals such as Carl Barus, Anton Julius Carlson, and Charles Eugene Delauney, as well as others.

Consists of copies of fundamental legal instruments of government (1664-1961) under which people have lived in New Jersey for the last 300 years, gathered by historian, Julian P. Boyd, for the book Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of New Jersey (1964), which he edited.