The collection consists primarily of correspondence representing five generations of the Bache and Hodge families as well as members of the Scott and Wistar families of Princeton and Philadelphia. Some prominent family members represented are Sarah Franklin (1744-1808), daughter of Benjamin Franklin, and her husband, Richard Bache (1737-1811); their son, Dr. William Bache (1773-1814), and his wife, Catharine Wistar Bache (d. 1820); their daughters, Catharine Wistar Bache (1805-1886) and Sarah Bache (1798-1849); and Charles Hodge (1797-1878, Class of 1815), the husband of Sarah Bache, and several of their children, including Mary Elizabeth Hodge (b. 1825) and her husband, William Mckendry Scott (1817-1862), as well as their sons Hugh Lenox Scott (1853-1934) and William Berryman Scott (1858-1947, Class of 1877). During the early years of their marriage, the latter couple lived in Danville, Kentucky. Two (1878) of the Hugh Lenox Hodge letters were written from Ft. Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory, previously commanded by Colonel George Custer before departing on his trek to the Little Bighorn.

The collection also includes three diaries (1859-1861) of William McKendry Scott; the Princeton valedictory oration (1815) of Charles Hodge and an essay on Philip Massinger by William Berryman Scott written while he was a student at Princeton; and three photograph albums, including those belonging to Sarah Bache Hodge and Charles Hodge Scott (1849-1921, Class of 1868), containing photographs of family members, scenes of the Princeton University campus around 1868, and members of the Princeton Class of 1868. The albums include photographs of Charles Hodge; his brother, Hugh Lenox Hodge (1796-1873, Class of 1814); three of his sons, Archibald Alexander Hodge (1823-1886, Class of 1841), Francis (Frank) Blanchard Hodge (b. 1838), and Caspar Wistar Hodge (1830-1891, Class of 1848); his son-in-law, William McKendry Scott; and his grandson, Charles Hodge Scott. There are also many photographs of unidentified family members.