The collection documents the career of Richard Rush (Princeton Class of 1797) as lawyer, statesman, and diplomat, emphasizing diplomatic negotiations between the United States and Great Britain while he was minister to Great Britain (1817-1825) and between the United States and France when he was minister to France (1847-1849), as well as his successful efforts (1836-1838) in securing the Smithsonian bequest, which was used to establish the Smithsonian Institution. The papers of Richard Rush constitute the larger part of the collection; letters of his father, Benjamin Rush, M.D. (Princeton Class of 1760), and papers of his son, Benjamin Rush (Princeton Class of 1829, constitute the other major groups of papers in this family archive.

Consists primarily of correspondence with authors such as Gordon Lish, James Purdy, Cynthia Ozick, and Paul Bowles, among many others, along with some writings and publisher files of American literary critic and professor of literature Irving Malin (1934-2014).

Consists of personal and professional correspondence between Lucius Hopkins Miller (Princeton Class of 1897), a professor in Princeton's Department of Religion, and Princeton colleagues, including Woodrow Wilson, fellow educators at other institutions, and publishers, such as Henry Holt.