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The Eaton-Shirley family papers consist of personal diaries, correspondence, military papers, legal and business documents, printed materials, and photographs. A primary figure in the collection, John Eaton, Jr., was Civil War Superintendent of the Freedmen and later Commissioner of Education under Grant. The papers also contains substantial material from other Eaton family members, including military papers and correspondence of his brother, Lucien B. Eaton, and papers of the Shirley family (the family of John Eaton, Jr.’s wife, Alice E. Shirley).

The Eaton papers consist of 1,903 items, dating from September 1790 to July 30, 1939. The bulk of the collection falls between 1850 and 1906. The papers contain 318 letters, 9 diaries/journals, 60 personal documents of John Eaton Jr., 275 legal documents and business papers, 112 military documents, 923 photographs, 84 printed items, and 122 miscellaneous items.

The majority of the correspondence is personal and relates to family matters. The 168 letters of John Eaton, Jr., contain extensive biographical information. Of particular interest are 44 Civil War-era letters including information about the freedmen, three letters pertaining to the publication of The Post, and two with content regarding the Ku Klux Klan. The collection also contains 22 letters to and from Alice (Shirley) Eaton, 31 letters to and from Lucien Eaton, and 32 miscellaneous letters from members of the Eaton family. Of the 30 letters written by Alice Eaton's parents (James and Adelaine Shirley), 10 letters regard compensation for the damage done to the Shirley House during the Civil War. Various other members of the Shirley family wrote 15 letters, and 20 letters are from other people unrelated to the Eaton and Shirley families.

John Eaton Jr.’s aunt, Ruth Dodge Eaton, wrote two diaries which consist almost entirely of Christian hymns and essays. John Eaton Jr.'s uncle, Horace Eaton, wrote one diary that contains Christian material written while he attended Dartmouth College. John Eaton, Jr., wrote two diaries, one of which he wrote as a youth, and the other as a student at Dartmouth. Other journals include two by John Eaton Jr.'s brothers, Frederick and Charles, and a household account book, kept by his sister Christina. Of particular importance is Alice Shirley’s diary, in which she described pre-civil war tensions between the north and the south, speculation on the upcoming Siege of Vicksburg, the early stages of the Siege of Vicksburg, and very personal feelings regarding her marriage to John Eaton, Jr.

The 60 personal papers of John Eaton Jr. include 17 documents regarding his appointments and titles, two documents about freedmen, and 41 miscellaneous address cards and invitations (including an invitation to the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge).

Of the 275 legal papers, 74 documents pertain to the sale of land in Mississippi; 7 concern Robert M. Jones’s claim to Choctaw Nation lands; and 25 relate to estate papers, deeds of trust and documents about the proceedings of Adelaine Shirley’s post-war relief claims; and a receipt for the sale of an African American woman. The remaining 176 legal papers are miscellaneous financial documents, such as tax documents, checks, and receipts.

Of the 112 military documents, 58 pertain to John Eaton, Jr., 7 of which are about freedmen. The military documents of Lucien B. Eaton number 54.

The 923 photographs consist of six photo albums, 31 cased daguerreotypes and ambrotypes, 144 cabinet cards, and 421 loose photographs and snapshots all depicting members of the Eaton and Shirley families, scenic locations, and the Shirley House.

Of the 84 printed items in the collection, 49 newspaper clippings pertain to the occupational and personal activities of John Eaton, Jr., and 9 miscellaneous clippings relate to the Eaton family. The remaining 26 items are published pamphlets, including addresses and reports concerning John Eaton, Jr.; a sermon written by Horace Eaton; a report of proceedings of an Ohio Brigade reunion; an Anti-Slavery Almanac from 1838; and an incomplete piece describing the history and restoration of the Shirley House.

The 122 miscellaneous papers of the John Eaton, Jr., collection consist of 53 recipes and 69 miscellaneous items including a partial autobiography of Alice Eaton.

The Parrish family photograph album contains 110 photographs assembled by the Parrish family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, including images of family and friends, political figures, celebrities, and popular illustrations as well as photographs related to Union efforts to educate freed slaves during the Civil War in the Port Royal Experiment.

The album (15.5 x 24 cm) has embossed brown leather covers and two metal clasps. 63 loose photographs are stored in Mylar sleeves and many appear to have been separated from the album over time. In some cases, it is possible to match loose images with a specific page slot through pairing inscriptions on the photograph with annotations present in the album. However, many loose images do not contain any identifying information, so it is unclear where some may have been located within the album or if they were ever associated with the album in the first place. It is possible that a small portion of the loose images were never originally included in the album since there are more photographs present in the collection than there are available photo slots in the album. At least two portraits from the 1890s do not appear to have belonged to the original family collection.

Compilation of the album may have first begun in the 1860s, but it was most likely completed during in the 1870s with photographs that the Parrish family had acquired over time. Sarah H. Parrish, née Wilson (1836-1892), the wife of Joseph Parrish’s grandson John Cox Parrish (1836-1921), may have been one of the primary creators of the album. She and John had a daughter named Caroline L. Parrish (1863-1915), who may be the “Carrie” whose name is written on the back of some of the photographs. Overall, there appear to be three different styles of handwriting present in the album. Captions for several of the album’s portraits were made in pencil in a flowing cursive while other names appear in a more juvenile-looking cursive hand, and a distinctive third hand also appears sporadically. The two cursive hands may well have been Sarah’s and Carrie’s as mother and daughter worked on the album together in the mid to late-1870s, with an occasional contribution (the third hand) possibly made by one of Carrie’s three younger brothers. One other detail supports this hypothesis: a portrait labelled “Fred” with “Mrs. Parrish, with love of Fred” inscribed on the verso. The individual photographed here was most likely Sarah’s cousin, Frederick Cleveland Homes (1844-1915). Additionally, the portrait on the page next to Fred’s portrait is of a young child identified as “Charlie Homes,” and it is likely that this is Fred’s son Charles Ives Homes (1872-1939).

Parrish family members are well represented in this album, while other unidentified family members may also be portrayed in some of the loose photographs without captions. Likely family friends or acquaintances of the Parrishes whose portraits are present include George and Catherine Truman, James and Lucretia Mott, the Rev. Richard Newton, and Phillip Brooks, all of whom were active in the same abolitionist organizations as the Parrishes. The album also contains many images of admired religious, political, and cultural figures, including Quaker heroes George Fox and Elizabeth Fry; Civil War leaders Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant; George and Martha Washington; social reformers Dorothea Dix and Anna E. Dickinson; actor Edwin Booth; and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. A number of these images are photographic reproductions of painted, engraved, or lithographic portraits. Also present are four hand-colored photographs of Dutch women in traditional dress as well as photographic reproductions of popular sentimental genre scenes such as “The Unconvanience of Single Life.”

Of particular note are a series of photographs related to the Port Royal Experiment, an ambitious effort to provide education for freed slaves following the capture of islands off the coast of South Carolina by Union troops in 1861. Relief committees in the North raised money and sent volunteers to set up schools and other institutions. Among the most successful was the Penn School, established by Laura Matilda Towne with support from the Philadelphia Freedmen’s organization in which the Parrish family was actively involved. People and places are identified with ink captions on the photographs themselves in a hand that differs from other inscriptions in the album. Towne may possibly have compiled these images herself and sent them to supporters back home. This series of photographs includes seven images of Beaufort, South Carolina, (four of which were produced by Sam A. Cooley, photographer to the Tenth Army Corps) captioned “Beaufort Soldiers’ Chapel and Reading Room,” “Path to the river of Smith’s Plantation,” “Beaufort House / Where we Stopped, showing the Beaufort Hotel and nextdoor office of the Adams Express Company,” “Soldiers’ Graves,” “Gen. Saxton’s Headquarters,” “Father French’s House,” and “Our House.” Three cartes de visite produced by Hubbard & Mix show instructors Towne, Ellen Murray, and Harriet Murray respectively posing with freed black children. The photograph with Ellen Murray bears inscriptions identifying her students as “Peg Aiken” and “Little Gracie Chapin (one of Miss Murray’s brightest pupils).” A fourth Hubbard & Mix image captioned “I’m a freeman” shows an African-American man dressed in clothing made from rags and includes an album page inscription that reads: “Young Roslin says, ‘Now I’m free, I go to bed/ when I please I’se gits up/ when I please. In olden times/ I’se help gits de breakfast/ but no’se time to eats it myself/ Ha-ha-I’se happy boy now.” Also present are three cartes de visite produced by photographers based in Nashville, Tennessee, including one portrait by T. M. Schleier of an African-American woman with two children (one of whom has a much lighter complexion than the other) with the recto caption “Lights & Shadows of Southern Life” and verso caption “Aunt Martha and children/ Slaves/ Nashville, Tenn.,” as well as two other images by Morse’s Gallery of the Cumberland that show the same young African-American boy looking sad “Before the Proclamation” and then grinning broadly “After the Proclamation.”