Mainly correspondence, 1815-1839, pertaining to the history of Cincinnati and the Miami River region of Ohio, and notes and drafts for historical addresses and publications on that region.

At the beginning of the volume are inventories of Daniel Drake's historical manuscripts, which were compiled after his death and which list papers that had originally belonged to his brother Benjamin. Although a few letters were written by Daniel Drake, most were written by others primarily during the Cincinnati anniversary observance (1838).

Among the writers were Samuel Dick, A.H. Dunlevy, Isaac Dunn, Ezra Ferris, Luke Foster, Daniel and Mary Gano, Thomas Jessup, John P. Jones, Elam P. Langdon, Darius Lapham, Richard Henry Lee, James Lyon, Robert T. Lytle, John McLean, Robert Patterson, Rebecca Reeder, John Reily, Elijah Slack, and O.W. Spencer. An incomplete and undated manuscript electioneering handbill bears a pencil drawing of a uniformed bell ringer reading a proclamation. Only a few printed items are scattered through the volume: a handbill advertising a lottery to benefit Cincinnati University as authorized by an 1807 statute; a circular (1814) publicizing the Miami Bible Society, accompanied by a copy of its constitution and a blank form for subscriptions; and an article “Cincinnati in 1835” by Benjamin Drake from the Western Monthly Magazine (January 1836).

A varied assortment of original manuscripts written or acquired by the Drakes.

Found in this volume are notes on prehistoric Indian antiquities in Ohio with many maps and diagrams; notes and essays on geographical, mineralogical, and botanical features in the region between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River; drafts of a short biography of John P. Campbell (1768-1814), Presbyterian minister, author, and antiquarian in Kentucky and Ohio; obituaries for William Goforth (1731-circa 1807), Ohio legislator and judge, and Robert H. Smith (d. 1812), physician in Milford, Ohio; notes on interviews in the 1830s with a few Ohio pioneers; a brief journal and notebook (1788) of Israel Ludlow; and an Ohio certificate to practice law (1806) issued to John Armstrong.

Also included are a few other business and legal documents, 1787-1816, relating to the Cincinnati area and bearing signatures of William Goforth, William Ludlow, John Reily, Arthur St. Clair, Jr., the elder John Cleves Symmes, and other early residents; a statistical abstract of the census of 1800 in the Northwest Territory; notes on Indian treaties and traditions, and a certified copy (1838) of the treaty of November 3, 1804, with the Sauk and Fox; and correspondence of scattered dates, 1808-1853. Although a few of these letters were sent to Daniel Drake, most are in small groups addressed to Edwin R. Campbell, Gaylord Clark, A. Goforth, and John C. Wright. Among the many signers of letters were J.H. Beard, P.E. Boone, E.A. Brackett, J. Ross Browne, Mann Butler, L.J. Cist, Lewis Collins, D.C. Cooper, A.H. Dunlevy, Isaac Dunn, Ezra Ferris, Godfrey N. Frankenstein, Daniel Gano, John H. Piatt, Jesse Reeder, James H. Rice, A.N. Riddle, John Cleves Short, Thomas H. Shreve, Andrew Small, William L. Sonntag, John W. Van Cleve, and John Woods. A small pen-sketched self-portrait of Frankenstein is found in an undated fragment of one of his letters.