The collection consists of orginal Boone manuscripts and Lyman Draper's correspondence and genealogical and biographical notes concerning Daniel Boone, other Kentucky pioneers, Indian-White conflict, and the American Revolution in the West. There are also account books, diaries, interview notes, survey notebooks, articles, and clippings. Included is a Boone family genealogy by James Boone; discussion and numerous maps of Kentucky settlement and travel, including routes over the Blue Ridge mountains; and Kentucky and west Virginia pioneer biographies and genealogies, including material on William Russell, Thomas Teays (or Teass), Daniel Boone's brothers George and Squire and nephew Jesse, Christopher Gist, Marcus Bird, George Crawford, Peter Houston, John Stewart (or Stuart), Henry Miller, Alexander Neely, Matthias Van Bibber, Felix Walker, George Washington, and Simon Kenton.
Also present are accounts of Indian captivities, including those of the Boone and Callaway girls (1776), Daniel Boone and his salt workers (1778; including Joseph Jackson's 1778-1799 captivity), John Flinn's wife and children (1786), Rebecca Sharp, Benjamin Ulen, and Charles Beazley; accounts of Indian-White conflict, including battles at Powell's Valley (1773), Point Pleasant (1774; includes a map), Island Flats (Tennessee), Ft. Patrick Henry (Tennessee), Boonesborough (siege, 1778), John Bowman's expedition (1779), the killing of Edward Boone (1780), George Rogers Clark's 1780 and 1782 campaigns, with a muster roll for John Martin's Company (1781), Estill's defeat (1782; includes maps), Bryan's Station (siege, 1782; including an interview with witness Joseph Ficklin and maps), Blue Licks (1782; includes maps), Benjamin Logan's expedition (1786), Tacket's Fort (1790), Ft. Wayne (siege, 1812), and the War of 1812 in Missouri.
Also includes material on the Boone family in North Carolina, including Rowan County marriage, land transaction, and cemetery records; material on Daniel Boone's business and political careers, including Kentucky land suit depositions, land survey notebooks (1776, 1780-1797), account books (1774-1775, 1785, 1787-1801), a 1787 reprint of Boone's autobiography, an interview with Nathan Boone, material on Boone's first trip to Missouri (circa 1798) and his later life there; and a Kentucky State expense record, 1792.
Included too is correspondence of John Wade, 1861, concerning the Civil War; correspondence of Albert Gallatin Boone concerning Kit Carson; extracts from Thomas Walker’s diary, 1750 and 1775, concerning his journeys and those of the “Long Hunters”; a letter from Zachary Taylor, 1848, concerning his father's and uncle's travels in the Old Northwest and their settlement in Kentucky; William Cocke's narratives of discussion with Lord Dunmore in 1774 and 1775; material concerning Simon Girty, the Shawnee chiefs Black Fish and Black Hoof, Kentucky silver mining, and the Treaty of Wautauga; and a pamphlet by Thomas Bryant, “Bryant's Station and its founder William Bryant.”
Correspondents include Arthur Campbell, William Christian, Lord Dunmore, William Preston, William Russell, Daniel Smith, Richard Henderson, Charles Yancey, and M.W. Van Lear.
NOTE: Descriptions of the volumes in contents list are copied from the Guide to the Draper Manuscripts by Josephine Harper.
