Seven bound volumes containing diaries, journals, essays, log of household visitors, daily log of activities, household accounts, silhouettes of unidentified people, and other papers primarily describing social life in Washington, D.C., with extensive detail about housekeeping and expense matters. There are gaps in the diaries, with a major one occurring during the years 1816-1827.

Includes entries relating to the schedule and work of Thornton's husband, architect William Thornton, on the east elevation of the Capitol, correspondence with Thomas Jefferson, visits to President Jefferson's home, a smallpox outbreak, paving of Pennsylvania Avenue, the British invasion of Washington, D.C., in 1814, the gun explosion on the steamship Princeton in 1844, inauguration of President James K. Polk in 1845, return of land to Virginia from Washington, D.C., in 1846, trips to Virginia, North Carolina, and Newburyport, Massachusetts, and Thornton's years spent in Tortola, Virgin Islands. A collection of autographs includes signatures of Henry Clay, James Madison, and John Peter Van Ness.