U.S. Civil War veteran Colonel E.A.L. (Edward Augustus Leonard) Roberts (1829-1881), of New York, revolutionized the nation's burgeoning oil industry with his invention of an explosive device, or "torpedo," which greatly increased oil wells' production. Upon the first successful explosion of one of his torpedoes in Titusville, Pennsylvania on January 21, 1865, Roberts and his brother, Walter B. Roberts (1823-1889), established the Roberts Petroleum Torpedo Company. For almost two decades, the company controlled oil well production as Roberts was awarded sole rights to the highly contested torpedo patent in the fall of 1866. This collection consists primarily of incoming letters to Walter B. Roberts, mostly from E.A.L. Roberts, about the Roberts Petroleum Torpedo Company and to a lesser degree one of its affiliated companies, Houghton, Roberts, & Company. Other correspondents include L.L. Houghton, various business associates, and patent attorneys. Also included are some financial and legal papers relating to the two companies.

Consists of letters and financial statements received by Walter D. Edmonds from his New York City literary agency, Harold Ober Associates.

Consists primarily of letters by British novelist and poet Walter De la Mare to Olive C. Jones, his secretary during the 1930s and, later, editor of Methuen's children's books.

Consists primarily of three diaries that William Dundas Bathurst (1859-1940) kept while serving as an officer of the Association Internationale du Congo (AIC) from December 1883 to September 1886.

Walter Evans Edge (1873-1956) was a notable New Jersey businessman and politician, serving New Jersey as Governor from 1917-1919 and 1944-1947 and as a United States Senator from 1919-1929. The Walter E. Edge Papers document Edge's personal and professional life through correspondence, speeches, government documents, photographs, memorabilia, and scrapbooks.