This series is made up of the correspondence, writings, diaries, clippings, and photographs of five generations of Brewer family members. The series is organized by individual family members, approximately twenty in number, listed alphabetically.
The papers consist of correspondence, writings, speeches, scrapbooks, photographs, diaries, and other papers, primarily of David Josiah Brewer, lawyer and justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The material includes Brewer's personal and family papers, although there are some papers relating to public matters, notably the Anglo-Venezuelan boundary dispute. Also included are papers of five generations of Brewer family members, including Josiah Brewer (1796-1872), the father of David Josiah Brewer. Nearly all of the family material consists of correspondence and is largely related to family matters.