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The collection provides evidence of the personal and professional life of James Fenimore Cooper, and to a lesser degree, the Cooper family, between 1792 and 1976. The collection documents Cooper's writing career, service in the United States Navy, and travels through Europe, and consists of correspondence, writings, personal papers, legal and financial documents, clippings, artwork, and objects. As an author who was engaged in the process of printing and publishing his works, and who was deeply interested in copyright, Cooper's papers shed light on book production during the mid nineteenth-century.

The papers consist of correspondence, writings, photographs, printed material, and other papers documenting the personal lives and professional careers of the Beer family. Extensive files of correspondence and papers for family members from the 1850s through the 1980s detail the lives and activities of such family members as William Collins Beer, a lobbyist for J.P. Morgan and Company, International Harvester Company, and the government of Italy, and a close friend of Mark Hanna; Thomas Beer, a prominent American author of novels, short stories, and articles; and Richard C. Beer, a foreign service employee stationed in Hungary during the 1920s.

The principal figure in these papers is Joseph Bardwell Lyman, a lawyer and journalist. The papers include his correspondence, diaries, business papers, account books, court books, and articles written between 1858-1865. His student career is documented with papers written while at Yale College (1845-1850) and at the University of Louisiana Law School. As a distant relative of the Dickinson family of Amherst, Massachusetts, he corresponded with Emily Dickinson, her brother, Austin, and her sister, Lavinia. One letter from Austin Dickinson is in the papers. Emily Dickinson and Lavinia are represented by "snatches" from their letters copied out by Lyman. Also in the papers is a two-year series of engagement letters written to Laura E. Baker between 1856 and 1858 when they were married. Other letters describe army life during the Civil War, the Battle of Shiloh, 1862, and Lyman's interest in journalism and agriculture. Laura Baker Lyman is represented in the papers by a journal and miscellaneous papers.

Tax, election, school, financial, military, and vital records for the town of Avon.

The materials consist of photographs and drawings documenting various aspects of student life and activities at Yale. Included are pictures of commencement ceremonies, class day activities, parties and dances, sports, protests, theatrical performances, classroom and other interior scenes, and Yale during wartime.

This collection consists of records of the Collins Company.

Administrative, tax, and school records for the town of Killingworth.

The papers contain correspondence, Civil War memorabilia, diaries, and photographs of Mason Cogswell Weld, Lewis Ledyard Weld, and Charles T. Weld, sons of Lewis Weld (1796-1853). The collection has letters written from Leipzig, Germany by Mason Weld, 1853-1855; and several letters from Lewis L. Weld describing his life and activities in Colorado, 1860-1863. The bulk of the correspondence, however, dates from the Civil War, in which all three brothers served.

Private journals, ledgers and scrapbooks kept by William H. Potter of Groton, Conn. and Brandon, Mississippi (1851-1955). The journals contain descriptions of his activities and discourses on religion and politics. A commonplace book (1837-1848) gives some information on his brief attendance at Yale and his stay at Bacon School. The papers contain an unidentified 1933 judicial diary and a Norwich, Conn. account book. The papers also contain a diary (1859-1861) and other materials of Kittie Potter.

Theodore Sedgwick Gold was born in Madison, New York. T.S. Gold graduated from Yale College in 1838 and then spent four years studying and teaching at academies in Goshen and Waterbury. He moved to Cornwall in 1842 to pursue a career in farming. Mr. Gold was a trustee of the Storrs Agricultural School from 1881 to 1901 and took an active role in promoting the school's growth and development throughout his lifetime.