Papers, 1789-1874, subdivided into three sections:

1) Josiah Harmar (1753-1813) papers. Original manuscripts, 1790-1791, and letters and interviews, 1839-1874, gathered by Benjamin Drake and Draper, relate to Harmar's rather unsuccessful campaign against the Miami Indians in 1790. The original papers include two letters (1790) alluding to Indian threats to Kentucky and to Harmar's alleged misconduct of the expedition and records (1791) of the court of inquiry appointed to investigate the charge. Partial minutes of the court sessions, of which Richard Butter was the presiding officer, are accompanied by about a dozen detailed accounts of the expedition written for Butler by officers who had served under Harmar.

Writers of letters and statements included Hamilton Armstrong, Daniel Britt, Ebenezer Denny, Thomas Doyle, William Ferguson, Bernard Gaines, Asa Hartshorne, Robert Johnson, William Kersey, Bartholomew Shaumburgh, David Strong, and David Zeigler. Draper's notes include a copy of a letter (1818) by Lewis Cass concerning the captivity of John Tanner and the death of the Chief Black Fish of the Shawnee in 1790. Another letter (1874) gives the provenance of a portion of the Harmar records.

2) Arthur St. Clair (1736-1818) papers. Original manuscripts, 1791-1792, plus clippings, interview notes, and a few letters of later dates, pertain to St. Clair's disastrous campaign ending in defeat on the Wabash on November 4, 1791. References to Harmar's campaign in the previous year also occur in the interviews. Original papers include: the descriptive diary, July 30-October 23, 1791, kept by Samuel Newman, captain in the Second Regiment of United States Infantry, covering his company's journey from Philadelphia to Cincinnati and the march northward in St. Clair's army; two letters by Charles Scott, one to William Croghan on business, the other to the governor of Virginia to discuss St. Clair's preparations for his campaign; a speech to the Indians by Scott in June 1791; and one letter of military content to John Armstrong, written and signed by St. Clair a month after his defeat.

Among the printed pieces are published letters about the defeat by participants and observers, two engraved portraits of St. Clair, and an incomplete contemporary publication of the Treaty of Fort Harmar (January 9, 1789) between the United States and the Chippewa, Delaware, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Sauk, and Wyandot tribes. A complete manuscript copy of this treaty is in 23U.

3) Absolom Baird (1758-1805) papers. Original manuscripts, 1791-1797, of Baird, Pennsylvania physician and lieutenant and brigade inspector of the Washington County militia, almost wholly concerning the use of the militia in western Pennsylvania and Ohio in defense against restive Indians primarily in the 1791-1793 period. In his correspondence are letters, incoming and outgoing, exchanged between Baird and Henry Knox, Thomas Mifflin, and Anthony Wayne; and single letters written by Baird to Benjamin Biggs, John Heaton, George McCully, and General Minor. Correspondents writing to Baird at later dates were Biggs, Samuel Brady, and Timothy Pickering.

Among his remaining papers are a printed broadside entitled “Indiana Business,” issued by George Morgan in 1791 about the land claim of the Indiana Company; an account (1792) describing Littleton Abdill's recent captivity among the Indians; numerous orders and receipts for payment for provisions and supplies for Washington County troops; and a printed form letter (1794) authorized by the governor to call for measures to bring to justice the armed rioters who had destroyed the house of John Neville, a customs official in Allegheny County-an event in the Whiskey Rebellion.