Correspondence, insurance policies, powers of attorney, promissory notes, bills of lading, bills of exchange, bills for ship repairs, admiralty registries, American and French court records, ship case files, other financial and legal papers, printed materials, and other papers relating chiefly to French spoliation claims. Includes materials (1793-1916) on the history and settlement of the claims; correspondence and insurance records of James H. Causten, John T. Pickett, Theodore J. Pickett, Edward Dunant, Joshua Gilpin, and Fulwar Skipwith, and of insurance companies including the Baltimore Insurance Company, Maryland Insurance Company, and the Peter Chardon Brooks Insurance Agency. Includes the papers of lawyers including William T.S. Curtis, William E. Earle, Leonard Myers, Luther H. Pike, David Stewart, and John Stewart, and of marine insurance company officials including Peter Chardon Brooks, John Hollins, Robert Hollins, Thomas Hollins, and Alexander McKim.

Correspondents include Charles Francis Adams, John Adams, Robert R. Livingston, James Madison, John Mason, James Monroe, Timothy Pickering, William Henry Seward, Charles Sumner, and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord.