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. Important international issues detailed in diplomatic dispatches and protocols include fisheries, impressment of sailors, maritime law, territorial claims to the Northwest part of America, the Seminole Wars, West Indian trade, slave trade, and free navigation of the St. Lawrence River. Various writings of Rush, his personal correspondence, a code used for confidential diplomatic correspondence, passports, diplomas, certificates, maps/charts,and other documents are also included.

Correspondents in the collection include John Quincy Adams, George Bancroft, Nicholas Biddle, James Buchanan, George Canning, Sir Stratford Canning, Robert Stewart Castlereagh, James Fenimore Cooper, George Mifflin Dallas, Albert Gallatin, Washington Irving, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis of Lafayette, Dolley and James Madison, John Marshall, James Monroe, Samuel Morse, John Trumbull, Daniel Webster, and Noah Webster. There is also correspondence to Rush's father, Dr. Benjamin Rush (1746-1813, Princeton Class of 1760); to his son, Benjamin Rush (1811-1877, Princeton Class of 1829); and to other members of the Rush family; and works and correspondence of other persons not members of the Rush family.