Correspondence, journals, articles, books, manuscript magazines, poetry, speeches, government reports, Indian vocabularies, maps, drawings, and other papers reflecting Schoolcraft's career as a glass manufacturer in New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont; mineralogist on an exploring expedition in the Ozark Mountains; geologist on the Cass expedition to the Northwest Territory; leader of expeditions throughout the Great Lakes region; member of Michigan's legislative council; Indian agent at Sault Sainte Marie and Mackinac Island (Mich.); superintendent of Indian affairs for Michigan; ethnologist and author of works concerning the Iroquois of New York state and other Indians of North America including Algic Researches (1839); and compiler and editor of Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (1851-1857).

Also includes correspondence and other papers of Schoolcraft's wives Jane Johnston Schoolcraft and Mary Howard (Mrs. Henry Rowe) Schoolcraft; papers of Schoolcraft's father Lawrence Schoolcraft, father-in-law John Johnston, and friend Lewis Cass; and Joseph N. Nicollet's journal (1836) of an expedition to the sources of the Mississippi.

Correspondents include John Russell Bartlett, John C. Calhoun, Lewis Cass, Ramsay Crooks, James Duane Doty, Edward Everett, Joseph Henry, John Harrison Howard (brother-in-law), John Hulbert (brother-in-law), Washington Irving, George Johnston (brother-in-law), Richard B. Kimball, William S. Lee, Francis Lieber, Lucius Lyon, Stevens Thomson Mason, William McMurray (brother-in-law), Pliny Miles, John Gorham Palfrey, Ely Samuel Parker, Francis Parkman, Thomas Ritchie, Willett H. Shearman, Benjamin Silliman, William Gilmore Simms, C. C. Trowbridge, and Henry Whiting.