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Edward Barker's journals include documentation of Mr. Barker's 1855 emigration from England to America and his later Civil War service as chaplain in the 40th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.

Barker's Civil War diary contains a unique record of the events leading up to the fall of Richmond. It is written, interestingly enough, in a ledger book taken from the Confederate Provost Marshal's office in Fredericksburg when the 40th Massachusetts occupied that town. The first six pages of the ledger contain brief medical records (little more than notes) on Confederate soldiers, apparently kept by a Confederate surgeon at Fredericksburg in February, 1865.

As a Chaplain, drawing comparatively high pay and being freed from many of the routine duties of other soldiers, Barker had far more opportunities to observe the area around Richmond and to visit different parts of Richmond than the average soldier. Barker's curiosity led him to visit several of the better-known sights, including Chimborazo Hospital, Hollywood Cemetery, the prison, and the area of town where the "F.F.V.'s" lived. Most interestingly, he often took the opportunity to speak with local inhabitants, both Union sympathizers and die-hard Confederates, other clergymen, and physicians. Barker writes clearly, intelligently, and with insight about the end of the war, and he provides vivid accounts of the first days of Union occupation in Richmond. The diary also includes a particularly valuable account of Fredericksburg when occupied by Union forces in February, 1865.

The diary that Barker kept during his passage from England to America in 1855 contains daily accounts of his activities from the first of the year through the time of his sea voyage and arrival in Monson. A few entries, most notably those at the beginning of the diary, during the days surrounding his departure, and those written immediately preceding and upon his arrival in Boston are very full, and contain unusually detailed accounts of the emotions and experiences of a young man emigrating to America for economic betterment, who is forced, albeit temporarily, to leave most of his family behind. Like his Civil War diary, it is marked with intelligent, though occasionally overly moralistic observations. Included at the end of the diary are 18 poems written by Barker during the voyage on various topics, including freedom in a slave-holding society, the ocean, his family, and emigration.

The Joseph Shipley, Jr., collection is made up of business and personal correspondence related to the Shipley and Bringhurst families of Wilmington, Delaware. Most items are letters to Joseph Shipley, Jr., a native of Wilmington who was involved in shipping and banking in Liverpool, England, in the early to mid-19th century.

The Joseph Shipley, Jr., collection (1 linear foot) contains business and personal correspondence related to the Shipley and Bringhurst families of Wilmington, Delaware. The earliest items include letters to Joseph Bringhurst from correspondents in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who commented on the cotton trade and finances from 1813-1817. The bulk of the collection is made up of business and personal letters to Joseph Shipley, Jr., from 1819 to the mid-1850s. Shipley, who lived and worked in Liverpool, England, regularly heard from merchants and family in Philadelphia and Wilmington and sometimes in New York and Manchester. The collection also includes some letters that Shipley wrote to his brothers. The Shipley correspondence often pertains to the shipment of cotton and other goods between the United States and Europe, to banking, and to family news from "Brandywine Mills."

Writers sometimes commented on current events or political affairs, such as elections, the advent of the "Native American" (Know Nothing) party and tensions between nativists and Irish Catholics in Philadelphia (May 14, 1844, and July 14, 1844), the "Oregon question," and the Mexican-American War. A letter from August 15, 1832, informs Shipley about the alarm over the cholera epidemic in Philadelphia. Several letters from the early 1840s mention the decline of the Bank of the United States, such as Richard Price's letter of October 30, 1840, which includes financial figures related to the bank. Shipley's later correspondence concerns personal and family matters, and he often received letters from his nieces and nephews in Delaware and Pennsylvania. The last items are letters written among members of the Bringhurst family. In one letter, Edward Bringhurst wrote to his wife Sarah about attending a religious service at the Sistine Chapel, presided over by the Pope (April 9, 1851). The collection also includes bills of lading, receipts, and indentures.