The papers of the Key-Cutts-Turner families span the years 1808-1975 with the bulk of the material dating from 1808 to 1855. The principals include Francis Scott Key (1799-1843), an attorney in Washington, D.C., best known as author of "The Star Spangled Banner" which became the national anthem. His daughter, Ann Arnold Key (1811-1884), married Daniel Turner (1796-1860) in 1829 at the Key home in Washington during Turner's single term as a United States representative from North Carolina. Much of the correspondence in the collection is addressed to or from Ann, also known as Anna, or Daniel Turner at "Woodley" plantation, near Warrenton, North Carolina. Most of these letters were written to Anna Turner, including eight from her father conveying family news and his religious views. The collection also includes examples of Key's poetry, a few in his hand. Ellen Key Turner, daughter of Anna and Daniel Turner, copied several of Key's poems into her commonplace book as an exercise for the Warrenton Female Seminary. Her Spanish exercises are written from Mare Island Naval Yard in California, where the family resided after 1854 when Turner was appointed superintending engineer for construction of public works.

The letters of Richard Cutts (1771-1845) to his father, Thomas Cutts, and brother Thomas, Jr., in Maine, were mostly written from Washington, D.C., while Richard served as a United States representative from Massachusetts and as comptroller of the treasury. His letters concern the commercial and maritime embargo of the Jefferson and Madison administrations, the eventual declaration of war against the British in 1812, and peace negotiations. The Cutts papers appear to have entered the collection as a result of the marriage of Ann Key Turner's daughter Emily to Richard M. Cutts, a grandson of Congressman Cutts. Notes on the Key and Turner genealogies and Cutts family records supplement the family history documented in this collection.