Collector. A collection of Americana including historical letters and documents, family and personal papers, broadsides, financial and legal papers, illustrated and printed ephemera, government and legislative documents, military records, journals, and printed matter relating primarily to the expansion and development of the United States from the colonial period through the 1876 centennial.

Lawyer, state legislator, and United States representative. Letters from Coit to his wife Nancy, to his son Robert, and to Charles Bulkeley, all of New London, Connecticut. Most were written in Philadelphia while Coit served as a representative in the United States Congress from 1793 to 1798. Many of the letters are accompanied by typed transcripts.

Poet and lecturer. Correspondence, poetry, articles and speeches, biographical material, scrapbooks, photographs, memorabilia, printed matter and other papers pertaining mainly to the poet Edwin Markham.

Author and reformer. Chiefly speeches and writings, with correspondence, notes, and printed matter pertaining to education, immigration, prison reform, race relations, religion, and women's rights.

Statistics compiled from census returns of 1910, 1920, and 1930 for eighteen cities used in preparing three chapters of the final report of the committee; also drafts of some of the chapters with commentary prepared for the Library of Congress by authors of the chapters, scrapbooks relating to the committee and reaction to its final report, a serialized condensation of the report; and data from a survey of rural communities used in preparing the report.

Political activist and commentator. Correspondence, speeches and writings, photographs, press passes, media scripts and programming guides, news clippings, political cartoons, news releases and newsletters, agenda, conference schedules, programs, minutes of meetings, advertisements, posters and flyers, brochures and booklets, as well as rail transit, family, school, and church records.