Genealogical information, correspondence, photographs, and other mementos of the Carpenter family, and other related families including Snow, Isham, and Manierre.

The collection seems to have been assembled by Harriet Isham Carpenter, wife of George A. Carpenter, and contains genealogical research into her background, including the Isham, Manierre, and Snow families. Her grandfather George Snow built one of the first houses in the U.S. to utilize "balloon frame" construction and some material pertains to her quest to assert that he was the inventor of this method, but this has not been proven. Other materials include genealogical information on the Carpenter family, a book of notes on corporate legal cases kept by George A. Carpenter, letters from Abigail and Benjamin Carpenter, a written reminiscence of the arrivals of the Williams and Snow families in Chicago by Mary W. Blatchford, photographs, and other mementos.