About 350 letters written mainly from the Oklahoma Territory, the Southwest, and the Dakotas by Elbridge Ayer Burbank to his uncle Edward E. Ayer, together with two scrapbooks containing incoming correspondence and miscellaneous clippings. Burbank, a painter and illustrator who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, was commissioned by Edward E. Ayer in 1897 to produce a series of portraits of prominent Indian Chiefs.

Twelve scrapbooks, containing newspaper clippings and illustrations regarding Indian affairs, presumably kept by Ely Samuel Parker, who was U.S. Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1869-1871. Also contains a few letters and reproductions of photos in the clippings.