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William Phoebus Lyon (1813-1884), was the founder and senior principal of the Irving Institute, a private boarding school for boys in Tarrytown, New York. On August 5, 1840, the honorary degree of A.M. was conferred upon him by Wesleyan University. In the summer of 1841, Lyon traveled to Middletown in order to observe the final examinations of the Wesleyan student body.

The collection consists of payroll vouchers, traffic vouchers, correspondence, deposit slips, financial documents and other materials associated with the Hartford & New Haven Railroad, the Central New England Railway, the Philadephia, Reading & New England Railroad, the New York & Boston Railroad and other railroad lines in southern New England and eastern New York. Much of the correspondence is to John Brock, president of the Philadelphia, Reading & New England Railroad and the Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad.Central New England Railway.

Correspondence and William Priest's medical day book detailing medical services provided to patients (1807-1810) and the fees charged. The letters also relate to medicine: one from a doctor describing his diagnosis and prescription for a patient with liver trouble and another concerning the uses of a variety of medicines.

Chiefly William Procter's records of laboratory and field observations of invertebrates, principally protozoa and various worms, with a notebook of mounted drawings of protozoa. Letters, newspapers clippings on non-scientific matters, and several poems are also in the papers.

The papers consist of copies of charts and memoranda prepared by the War Department. The documents relate to the availability and condition of aircraft, their allocation to various theaters of operation, and efficient utilization of air power during World War II.

William R. Cotter, Democratic Member of Congress for the First District of Connecticut, was born in Hartford, Connecticut on 18 July 1926. In 1953, Cotter was elected to the Hartford Court of Common Council, and served as an aide to United States Senator Abraham Ribicoff, 1955-1957, as Deputy Insurance Commissioner, 1957-1964, and as Insurance Commissioner of Connecticut from 1964-1970. He developed and introduced laws to regulate rates and solvency of insurance companies in Connecticut, and developed a comprehensive automobile liability insurance reform program. Cotter was elected to the ninety-second Congress on November 3, 1970 and was reelected five times. He represented the First District in Connecticut from 1971 until his death.

The papers detail the life and work of William Richard Johnson, most significantly documenting the years he spent in China, 1906-1942. William Richard Johnson was born in 1878 in Cornell, Illinois. He received a B.A. degree from Northwestern University in 1905 and an M.A. degree from Columbia University Teachers College in 1937. In 1906, Johnson sailed for China to serve as a missionary for the Methodist Episcopal Church. In China, he served as a pastor, educator and school administrator. He was active in famine and flood relief work, 1931-1936, and proposed a Rural Reconstruction Program adopted by the central government in 1933. Shortly after becoming the assistant director of the American Red Cross China Relief Unit, Johnson was taken prisoner by the Japanese in 1941. He was exchanged and returned to the United States in 1942. He died in Polo, Illinois on July 19, 1967.

Business correspondence, articles, speeches, and the manuscripts of Brown's book, Our Forest Heritage: a History of Forestry and Recreation in New Hampshire (1958), forestry studies, and Congressional bills. Includes papers relating to the Brown Company of Berlin, New Hampshire (manufacturer of paper products, chemicals, and other wood-using products), the American Forestry Association, New Hampshire Disaster Emergency Council, New Hampshire Forestry Commission, North East Forest Research Council, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, Society of American Foresters, and the Timber Lands Mutual Insurance Company.

The papers consist of correspondence of approximately fifty incoming letters and two written by Rogers in 1790 and 1792. His correspondents are chiefly Baptist ministers of the United States and England, discussing church affairs, theological literature, politics, and emigration from England to the United States. Several anti-slavery societies are also mentioned in the letters.