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The books fall into three categories: farmers, storekeepers and businesses.

The Chatham Quarry, or Town Quarry, was a small part of the extensive brownstone quarries located on the banks of the Connecticut River near the towns of Portland and Middletown, Connecticut. The Chatham Quarry, which took in about two acres, remained under municipal control for the use of the inhabitants of the towns of Chatham and Middletown throughout its existence. In 1824, the town of Middletown leased the quarry to John Lawrence Lewis for five years in order to extract stones for the building of a scientific and military academy. The quarry was bought from the town by Brainerd Quarry Company and the Middlesex Quarry Company for $20,000. The office of the town quarry agent closed in 1884.

The collection consists of administrative files, photographs, and DVDs associated with the formation, maintenance and demise of the Connecticut Central Railroad, a freight line that ran in and around Middletown, Connecticut, from 1987 to 1998.

The early history of the Connecticut Employees Union Independent is largely the story of one man, Salvatore Perruccio, a prominent labor leader in the state of Connecticut for almost forty years. The Connecticut Employees Union Independent was formed on 26 April 1967, when Perruccio and 325 state employees working at the Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown decided to break away from AFSCME and begin their own union. The split with AFSCME was not friendly, and the Federation attacked the new union with a variety of tactics ranging from court injunctions, subterfuge, and even violence. The Independent managed to survive, and by 1981 it boasted a membership of over 8,000 state employees, most of whom were maintenance workers.

District Lodge 91 received its charter in May 1953. At that time the representative locals consisted of Hartford Aircraft Lodge 743, chartered in 1941, representing workers at Hamilton Standard (located in East Hartford until 1952 when it moved to Windsor Locks); Industrial aircraft Lodge 1746, chartered in February, 1945, representing workers at Pratt and Whitney, East Hartford; and Industrial Aircraft Lodge 1746A, chartered in October, 1951, representing Pratt and Whitney workers in Southington. In March 1959 Canal Lodge 700, in Middletown, was chartered and added to District 91 representation. Prior to 1953, Pratt and Whitney workers' lodges were part of IAM District 26. As of 1984, District 91 included Lodge 700, Lodge 707 (from North Haven), Lodge 743, Lodge 1746, and Lodge 1746A.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), Canel Lodge 700 was founded on 20 April 1959. The lodge, located in Middletown, Connecticut, was organized by machinists at the Canel Atomic Testing Lab. In 1959, the local gained collective bargaining recognition from the Canel Lab. Pratt and Whitney took over the plant circa 1965. Pratt and Whitney continued union recognition after the takeover.

The Connecticut Valley Railroad was formed in 1871, extending from Hartford, Connecticut, south to Old Saybrook, Connecticut, along the Connecticut River. The railroad line was reorganized in 1880 to become the Hartford & Connecticut Valley Railroad, and leased by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad in 1887 to become the Valley Division of that line. The collection consists of shipping documents of freight shipped out of the North Haven, Connecticut, freight yard; real estate records of properties in Middletown, Connecticut; photographic negatives of train wrecks in the New Haven, Connecticut, area; and other papers. Items donated in 2021 include albums of photographic prints of scenes along the Connecticut Valley Railroad and its successors and of the Valley Railroad heritage rail line in Essex, Connecticut; photographic negatives; and historical documents related to the railroads associated with the Connecticut Valley Railroad.

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners was founded on 8 August 1881. In 1892, sixty-eight carpenters in the Stamford area, dissatisfied with low wages and long workweeks, agreed to join the union. With the assistance of Frank Duffy, president of the New York UBCJ Council, UBCJ Local 210 of Stamford was organized. The charter was granted on 14 October 1897.

First established as a program within the Labor Management Institute in 1946, the Labor Education evolved into a separate center in 1961. Its purpose is to fulfill the educational, consultation, and research needs of the state's unions.