Original papers include correspondence and letterbooks, judicial records, journals, and notes. The letterbooks primarily cover the period 1822-1829, and consist of letters from Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, and other locations to various territorial and national officials. They primarily concern Indian affairs. There are transcriptions for most items. The loose correspondence primarily dates from the years 1839-1844, when Doty was the governor and territorial delegate. There are references to road building, the establishment of Wisconsin's territorial government and boundaries, the Menominee treaty of 1832, and immigration to the state. Among these letters are several from John Jacob Astor, William B. Astor, Lewis Cass, Henry Clay, Nathanial P. Tallmadge, Daniel Webster, James Wilson, Austin E. Wing, and William Woodbridge. Judicial records document decisions on cases heard before him in Wisconsin as an additional judge of the U.S. Circuit Court (Michigan Territory). There is a court clerk's record book covering a somewhat longer period. A handwritten journal documents Doty's 1820 trip to the upper Mississippi with Lewis Cass and Henry Schoolcraft. There are also notes and notebooks about other frontier travels, 1818-1822, Indian languages and culture, and also the establishment of Wisconsin's boundaries. The collection includes the articles of incorporation of the Fond du Lac Company, an 1837 Wisconsin imprint. A few papers pertain to Doty's sons, Charles and James, and his daughter, Mary Doty Fitzgerald.
The collection includes microfilmed copies of documents at the Henry E. Huntington Library, the Baker Library at Harvard (the John Jacob Astor Papers), Western Reserve Historical Collections, and the National Archives (also available as photostat copies). Transcriptions of documents come from the Solomon Sibley Papers, William Woodbridge Papers, and other holdings of the Burton Historical Collection. These copied materials overlap the original papers in subject matter. The Huntington papers (1820-1838) and Baker Library papers (1835-1856) both include information on affairs in Green Bay; the Huntington papers also concern matters involving Indians in Wisconsin and Mackinac. The Western Reserve items date 1777 and 1822-1843. The National Archives records (1836-1841) concern Doty's nomination as governor of Wisconsin Territory. Details on the microfilm contents may be found in Alice Smith's research correspondence.
In 2007, a container list was prepared for the Doty Papers and the inventories of the Rosenbach, Titus, and Hathaway accessions were compared to the contents. At this time the John Quincy Adams letter (1823), an 1840 Daniel Webster letter, and an inaugural ball invitation were missing from the original Rosenbach purchase. Doty's draft message to the Legislature, December 5, 1835, presented by Densmore Chapin, was also missing. See further notes in Box 1, Folder 1.
