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The Gibson family vacation album contains photographs taken in South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, and New York circa 1897. The volume includes pictures of warships, buildings, and members of the Gibson family.

The Gibson family vacation album (14cm x 18cm) contains 23 photographs taken in South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, and New York circa 1897, as well as two halftone photomechanical prints and a carte de visite. The volume includes pictures of warships, buildings, and members of the Gibson family. The album's cloth-bound covers have two decorative designs, with the title "Photographs" appearing on the front. Each photograph is behind an 8cm x 8cm window.

The majority of the pictures show scenery and buildings in the South, such as George Washington's home at Mount Vernon, the Gonzalez-Alvarez House in Saint Augustine, Florida (accompanied by a newspaper clipping entitled "Oldest House in America"), the Saint Augustine slave market, Fort Sumter, and a Confederate monument in Magnolia Cemetery (Charleston, South Carolina). Other photographs from Florida show Saint Augustine streets and groups of people posing by palm leaves, bathing at Daytona Beach, and embarking on a picnic. The album contains three shots of sea-going vessels involved in the blockade of Cuba: the tugs, The Three Friends, the Dauntless, and the USS Vesuvius. The remaining items include a picture of women playing baseball in Salamanca, New York, and printed halftones of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Willard A. Gibson. A carte-de-visite of a painted portrait of three young women is included.

This collection is made up of Robert Preston's letters to his parents about his service in the United States Navy during World War II. Preston repaired aircraft and supervised metal shops at the Norfolk Air Station and on Chincoteague Island, Virginia.

This collection (87 items) contains 83 letters, 1 postcard, and 1 telegram that Robert Preston sent to his mother and stepfather, Eva and Frank Lakewitz of Baltimore, Maryland, from March 5, 1942-April 20, 1943, while serving in the United States Navy, as well as 1 letter from his wife Dotty (April 24, 1942). The final item is a photographic greeting card with an informal portrait of a man and woman (January 10, 1945).

Robert Preston wrote about his arrival at Norfolk, Virginia; his work repairing airplanes and supervising metal shops at Norfolk Air Station and Chincoteague Island, Virginia; and other aspects of his daily life. He sometimes mentioned his wife and their young daughter Mary Jane. In his letter of September 5, 1942, he noted that some money had been stolen out of his wallet, and, on September 19, 1942, he reported that the culprit had been dishonorably discharged and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Preston occasionally flew in military aircraft. He described fatal crashes in his letters of November 15, 1942; February 21, 1943; and April 4, 1943.

Preston wrote 2 early letters on stationery with printed paintings of navy vessels and aircraft and sent his mother an illustrated Mother's Day telegram from Western Union (undated). Some of his letters and envelopes have cartoonish drawings of sailors or other men (December 29, 1942, et al.). He drew a diagram of part of a car (October 22, 1942) and a picture of an airplane instrument he built (October 26, 1942).