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The Benjamin Ropes Nichols papers are letters written home from Nichols as a student at Harvard from 1800-1804, and later as a married man living in Boston from 1824-1831.

The letters comprising this collection fall into two discrete groups representing the periods of time when Nichols was separated from his family: those written while he was at college (1800-1804) and those written from Boston (1824-1831).

Benjamin's college letters give a strong impression of student life at Harvard shortly after the turn of the century. Of particular interest are his father's letter of advice on the proper conduct of a young man preparing to enter college (dated [1800]), Benjamin's apparently sincere apology for not having followed this advice (19 Sept. 1800), two letters describing student unrest following the expulsion of a classmate (1 and 14 Sept. 1800), and a letter regarding vandalism at the chapel (23 Nov. 1802).

Two of the letters written from Boston (11 and 16 February 1829) concern the Nichols' attempts to locate a suitable wetnurse following Mrs. Nichols' giving birth to twins.