The collection contains family letters, legal documents (personal, professional, and business), primarily written by residents of New York State and miscellany; photographs of nineteenth-century portraits from the album of Elizabeth Van Rensselaer; black and white photographs taken in the mid-1950s and 1960s of Van Rensselaer family member portraits and homes; newspapers with articles relating to the Van Rensselaer family.

The Hoffman papers consists of agendas, minutes, reports, correspondence, flyers, and ephemera from Hoffman's undergraduate years at R.P.I. The bulk of the material, 1969-1973 emphasizes an intense period of campus activity and change at Rensselaer regarding political issues on campus and nationally.

The Warren T. Kellogg Papers consist of manuscript drafts and photographs.