The collection consists of lectures, lecture notes, published essays, printed matter, and a small amount of correspondence of Atwater, a professor of logic and moral and political science at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), as well as some papers of other people. Included are bound volumes of lectures and exam questions given by Atwater, attendance lists, newspaper clippings collected for research purposes, tax forms and other administrative papers. Also present are a volume of lecture notes taken by Atwater's son, Edward Atwater (Princeton Class of 1862), while a freshman at Princeton in 1858, and tearsheets of articles by various authors published in the Princeton Review.