The papers of Lewis H. Machen (1790-1863) and family and an allied collection of Gresham family papers span the years 1802 to 1938, with the bulk of the material, falling in the decades from the 1830s through the 1870s. Some items dated earlier than 1802 are later copies of correspondence of George Washington and other important figures of his time. The collection consists of journals and diaries, family and general correspondence, speeches and writings, a United States Senate file, subject file, legal and financial papers, account books, and printed matter.

Correspondence of the immediate members of the Machen family constitutes over one-third of the collection. It presents a full and remarkable chronicle of the lives of five family members who maintained close ties over the course of much of their adult lives. Lewis H. Machen , who for fifty years served in the office of the Secretary of the Senate , and Arthur W. Machen , oldest son of Lewis and prominent Baltimore lawyer, are the principal figures in this family correspondence. Others are Caroline Machen , wife of Lewis, and their two other children, James P. and Emmeline Machen.

In addition to being of interest because of the family portrait that emerges from it, this family correspondence is of wider significance for its informed commentary upon the times. Lewis H. Machen, from his position in the Senate , was witness to some fifty years of turbulent American political history. In long, four-page letters he not only advised, guided, and counseled the various members of his family, but generally reserved a page or two, particularly in letters to Arthur, for a discussion of national events as he saw them enacted or reflected on the floor of the Senate . There are, for example, a score of letters that follow the course of the Compromise of 1850; others comment on Andrew Jackson , John Quincy Adams , Daniel Webster , and Henry Clay , as well as on slavery and the drift towards Civil War.

Also of importance in the Machen family correspondence, and slightly more in number, are the letters of Arthur W. Machen. These include letters written as a youth on the family farm ("Walney") in Fairfax County, Virginia , as a student at Harvard Law School , as a young lawyer in Baltimore , and finally as a leader of the Baltimore bar. Of special interest are letters written during the months immediately before and after the outbreak of the Civil War, providing considerable insight into the climate of opinion within the city of Baltimore and throughout the Maryland countryside.

General correspondence consists chiefly of letters addressed to Lewis H. Machen and Arthur W. Machen by persons other than immediate family members. Included as prominent correspondents are Senators Joseph Cilley , Thomas Clayton , Walter Lowrie , and William C. Rives. Cabinet members represented are John M. Clayton and John Henry Eaton. Other correspondents are Kendall Brooks , Jeremiah Day , Asbury Dickins , Peter Force , Charles Jared Ingersoll , Thomas Ap Catsby Jones , C.C. Langdell , William Berkeley Lewis , Theophilus Parsons , Benjamin Silliman , John Peter Van Ness , and James D. Whelpley.

Copies and drafts of outgoing correspondence written by Lewis H. and Arthur W. Machen are also contained in the collection. Included in this group is a long letter addressed to Senator William C. Rives in which Lewis H. Machen gives an account of how he saved the papers and records of the Senate from destruction when the British burned the Capitol in the War of 1812. A file of Speeches and Writings, a Senate File, Subject File, legal and financial papers, account books, and printed matter complete the collection.

Researchers may wish to consult Arthur W. Machen, Jr., compiler, Letters of Arthur W. Machen, with a Biographical Sketch (Baltimore: Privately printed, 1917).

Gresham family papers added to the collection in 1984 include seven diaries and approximately 550 items of correspondence. Among the principal figures represented, all of Macon, Georgia , are John J. Gresham , an attorney, judge, and plantation owner, his wife Mary , and their children, LeRoy , Thomas , and Minnie. Minnie married Arthur W. Machen in 1873, and many of his letters to her are present in the Gresham Family series. The seven diaries were kept by LeRoy Wiley Gresham (1847-1865), an invalid over much of the course of his brief life, and were maintained almost continuously from June 1860 to within a few days of his death on June 18, 1865. On the one hand these diaries provide a poignant record of his suffering, while on the other they reveal an unusual precocity of mind and generosity of spirit. His place in the family was firmly and lovingly established, his interests were wide ranging, and he followed assiduously the unfolding events of the Civil War. Of special interest in this latter regard are the entries of November-December 1864 when William T. Sherman made his march through Georgia to the sea. Macon was thought to be in the line of advance, and LeRoy Gresham's diary reflects the uncertainties faced by those in the path of Sherman's army.

The Gresham family correspondence ranges in date from 1834 to 1925. Preponderantly the letters exchanged by members of the inner circle of the family, they are frequently concerned with domestic, social, and religious matters and with the health of LeRoy Gresham. The difficulties and anxieties of the Civil War years are also discussed, and a number of letters written to LeRoy by his brother Thomas provide information on life in the Confederate army. Also revealed are conditions in Macon in the aftermath of the war and during Reconstruction. Following Minnie's marriage to Arthur Machen in 1873, and for the years of her residence in Baltimore , the papers consist largely of letters she received from her husband, family, and friends.