The papers of Charles Butler (1802-1897) span the years 1819-1929 but are most numerous for the period 1825-1894. They include correspondence, diaries, notes, maps, newspaper clippings, and printed matter and document both Butler's public and private life.

The collection, consisting chiefly of correspondence dating from 1819 to 1901, includes letters sent as well as letters received, a large number of typed copies, a letterbook for the years 1836-1844, and legal, financial, and business papers. This material documents Butler's involvement in New York politics, his interest in internal improvements including roads, canals, and railroads, and such matters as anti-Masonry, public debts in Indiana and Michigan , loans to farmers by the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company and legal cases, particularly the William Morgan kidnapping. The papers also include a large number of family letters, especially between Butler and his wife, Eliza Ogden Butler , his brother, Benjamin Franklin Butler , and his brother-in-law, William B. Ogden. Other correspondents include William Bard , Edward Bissell , Arthur Bronson , Isaac Bronson , Edwin Croswell , Elon Farnsworth , Lucius Lyon , William L. Marcy , Thomas W. Olcott , Martin Van Buren , and Bowen Whiting.

Several diaries cover Butler's travels in the Midwest in 1833 and include accounts of the people whom he met and descriptions of places visited, especially in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. Also of interest are recollections and notes that highlight Butler's life and a description of a meeting with Martin Harris , a Mormon who sought financial support for publishing the Book of Mormon.

Maps of Indiana for the period 1846-1847 and 1856-1857 delineate railroads, canals, and county seats. An 1873 map depicts a proposed canal route from Toledo to St. Louis and Chicago. Newspaper clippings relate principally to the settlement of the suit of the St. Louis, Alton, and Terre Haute Railroad Company against Charles Butler and Samuel J. Tilden.

Printed matter, 1830-1890, includes such items as pamphlets, reports, advertisements, and legislative bills. There are also circulars of the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, the St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute Railroad Company and the Wabash and Erie Canal Company and items relating to internal improvements and public debts in Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana.

Additional items acquired in 1991 include thirty-six letters, 1854-1929, to Charles Butler and other family members, together with typewritten transcripts of the letters. Correspondents includes George Bancroft , John Bigelow , William Curtis , John Fiske , and Mark Hopkins.