Mainly interview notes taken by Draper during visits with Kentucky pioneers and their descendants, particularly in 1844, but interspersed are letters to Draper, bibliographical and biographical notes by him, and notes on an interview of James Ray by Mann Butler in 1833. Previously (and erroneously) labeled as papers on John Bowman's campaign of 1779, the volume in reality contains comparatively few references to that event, and these are widely scattered. In actual content the papers touch upon many aspects of Kentucky history from 1770 to the 1790s, including settlement, pioneer living and travel conditions, hunting bear and buffalo (bison), outlaws such as the notorious Harpe brothers, and Indian-white conflict.

Biographical or genealogical data are found for numerous persons: Joseph Ballinger, William Casey, Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Elijah Farris, John Haggin, James Harrod and his wife Ann, William Harrod, Benjamin Logan, Daniel McCormick, Samuel McDowell, Hugh McGary, John Martin, William Montgomery, George Murrell, James Ray, Jeremiah Vardeman, and William Whitley. Among the few copies of eighteenth-century documents are a roll listing members of John Martin's company in Clark's Wabash expedition in April-May, 1781, and a record of Kentucky state expenses in 1792.