The papers of Salmon Portland Chase (1808-1873) cover the years 1755-1898, with the bulk of the material spanning 1824-1872. The collection consists of diaries, correspondence, letterbooks, speeches, memoranda, financial papers, legal documents, and miscellany.

The early diaries are more intimate and detailed than later ones. The first volume includes marginalia citing names of people, topics, or events discussed in the adjacent text. References to people are generally accompanied by biographical information. The diaries covering the years 1861-1864 document Chase's participation in the formulation of policy and events relating to the Civil War. The diary for 9 December 1861 to 30 September 1863 contains Chase's draft of Lincoln's 6 March 1862 message to Congress on the abolition of slavery, three letters from Chase to his daughter, Janet, written 7, 8, and 11 May 1862 on "The Taking of Norfolk," and a "Narrative of Operations" of the war from 11 May to 24 June 1862. An account of the cabinet meeting at which Lincoln proposed the Emancipation Proclamation is in the diary covering the period 20 July to 12 October 1862 published later by the American Historical Association as volume two of its Annual Report for 1902. Entries in both volumes for 1862 are in the handwriting of Homer G. Plantz; those for 1863 were recorded by Jacob W. Schuckers. The diary for 24 June to 6 July 1864 includes Chase's activities in the days immediately preceding and following his resignation as secretary of the treasury. The contents of the 1870 diary are confined largely to comments on routine affairs, along with a few notes and memoranda.

All facets of Chase's public career are covered in the General Correspondence series. Early letters relate to Chase's law practice, Ohio and national politics, the Liberty Party, and his opposition to slavery. During his years as secretary of the treasury, the correspondence centers on problems of national finance, the establishment of a national banking system, routine operations of the Treasury Department, and the military operations of the Civil War. This segment of correspondence contains letters from George S. Denison, who served in various capacities as Chase's official and personal representative in New Orleans from June 1862 to March 1865. In the years following his appointment as chief justice of the United States, the letters reflect Chase's continued interest in national matters, politics, the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, the creation of a national currency, and the progress of Reconstruction as well as Chase's involvement with cases and other business of the Supreme Court and the circuit courts. An incomplete card index to the correspondence is located in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.

The Letterbooks and Letterpress Copybooks series treats the same topics found in the General Correspondence. Some volumes are indexed, and most include a few family letters. A number of letters written after 1870 are represented by notes rather than by copies of the letters themselves. The letterbook for 1833-1837 consists solely of letters of the law firm of Caswell and Chase, and the letterbook for September 1870-June 1871 contains copies of letters written during the months of Chase's recuperation from an attack of paralysis and relates primarily to his health and personal finances.

A printed copy of Appeal of the Independent Democrats , written by Chase to denounce the Kansas-Nebraska bill, is included in the Speeches and Writings series. The Miscellany series contains an unfinished biography of Chase written by Edward L. Pierce in 1854 or 1855 when he was a student in Chase's office.

Correspondents include Daniel Ammen, Flamen Ball, Dwight Bannister, James Gillespie Birney, George Carlisle, Henry Beebee Carrington, Edward I. Chase, Philander Chase, William F. Chase, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jay Cooke, George S. Denison, Rachel Denison, Hamilton Fish (1808-1893), James A. Garfield, Horace Greeley, Edward Stowe Hamlin, Joshua Hanna, Rutherford Birchard Hayes, George Hoadly, Janet Ralston Chase Hoyt, John Jay, Andrew Johnson, Reverdy Johnson, A. Sankey Lattay, Joshua Leavitt, Simeon Nash, George Opdyke, Richard Chappell Parsons, William S. Rosecrans, J.W. Schuckers, William Henry Seward, James R. Skinner, Ralston Skinner, Geritt Smith, Hamilton Smith, Katherine Chase Sprague, William Sprague, Charles Sumner, and James W. Taylor.