Correspondence, writings, documents of Nathan Kendall and wife Abby J. Reed Kendall of Massachusetts, Indiana and Illinois, including many letters to each other before and after marriage in 1857, as well as numerous letters to and from members of their families, friends and former students. Some correspondence and documents concern travel to California begun in 1849.

Correspondence, dating mainly from 1849 to 1876, of California emigrant Samuel V. Tripp, addressed primarily to his mother and sister in Ohio, regarding his life in the Northern California gold region and later in Southern California.