Correspondence, diaries, journals, accounts, notebooks, military records, financial papers, biographical and genealogical material, scrapbook, newspaper clippings, photographs, and other papers relating chiefly to John Rodgers's naval service and to family affairs. Documents Rodgers's command of the naval squadron in the Mediteranean Sea during the Tripolitan War and again in 1826-1827, his command of the New York Naval Shipyard and of the flotilla enforcing the embargo along the East coast (1807-1810), and naval encounters during the War of 1812. Includes ship's papers from Rodgers's command of the frigate Constitution, ship-of-the-line North Carolina, and frigate President, as well as from Matthew C. Perry's command of the sloop-of-war Concord. Also includes an account of the sickness and death of William Kimble, a seaman on the President in 1813, who was said to have awakened from death twice during the course of his final illness.

Letters from Minerva Rodgers pertain primarily to family life on the Rodgers's estate, Sion Hill, Havre de Grace, Maryland, and in their Washington, D.C., homes. Subjects include the loss of her son Henry Rodgers with the sloop-of-war Albany in 1854 and sentiment in Washington, D.C., following President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Other family correspondents relate their experiences as a U.S. Army topographical engineer in New Mexico in the 1850s and during the Civil War, cattle ranchers in Wyoming in the 1880s, a member of the consular service in Germany in the 1890s, and in ports around the world as a naval officer in the 20th century. Also includes a diary of Nannie Macomb chronicling Washington, D.C., social life (1883-1888).

Correspondents from the related Macomb, Meigs, and Rodgers families include Ella Chelle McKeldon Macomb, John N. Macomb, Charles D. Meigs, Mary M. Meigs, Montgomery Meigs (1847-1931), Montgomery C. Meigs, Minerva Macomb Peters, Thomas Willing Peters, John Rodgers (1812-1882), Louisa Rodgers Meigs, and Mary Montgomery Meigs Taylor. Other correspondents include William Bainbridge, Samuel Barron, Stephen Decatur, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Isaac Hull, Tobias Lear, Douglas MacArthur, Matthew Calbraith Perry, Oliver Hazard Perry, Anne M. Pinkney, David Porter, Samuel L. Southard, Robert Traill Spence, Benjamin Stoddert, John Trippe, and Daniel Webster.