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The Henry Wight Diman collection is made up of correspondence, school essays, personal reading lists, and photographs related to Diman, a graduate of Brown University who later became United States Consul to Portugal.

The Henry Wight Diman collection is made up of correspondence (58 items), a diary, school essays (39 items), personal reading lists (7 items), and photographs (4 items) related to Diman, a graduate of Brown University who later became United States Consul to Portugal.

The Correspondence series (58 items) contains incoming and outgoing letters related to Henry Wight Diman, including many that he wrote and received while attending Brown University in the early 1850s. His most frequent correspondents were his brother, J. Lewis Diman, and his father, Byron Diman, who wrote from Newport and Bristol, Rhode Island. Henry Diman wrote about his college experiences and his leisure activities in Providence. Other correspondence includes letters to Henry Wight Diman from his cousin, Georgia Alden, a letter that he wrote to his father about his travels on the "Great Western Road" (April 21, 1856), and letters that he wrote while living and traveling in Portugal (August 1, 1864) and Morocco (April 10, 1865). In one undated letter, Henry's cousin Fannie commented on her anticipation of the end of the Civil War and her work at a military hospital.

The Diary belonged to Henry Wight Diman's mother, Abby Alden Wight Diman, who wrote daily entries between January 1, 1843-March 27, 1843. She discussed her social life, family news, church attendance, and other daily activities, such as the family's attendance at medical lectures from January 2-4.

The Essays series (39 items) contains academic essays that Henry Wight Diman composed while attending school in Bristol, Rhode Island, and Brown University. The early writings, written in the mid-1840s, are primarily descriptive. Diman's later compositions, particularly those from his collegiate studies, concern literature, Roman history, German history, British history, death, and the plays of William Shakespeare. Diman wrote a satirical piece entitled "The Cow Convention" for the [Bristol?] Phoenix (undated). The series includes a list of essay subjects for the 1854 spring term at Brown University.

The Book Lists series (7 items) concerns suggested readings in science, history, religion, travelogues, and biography. Others concern poetry, drama, and novels. One item is a list of books that Henry Wight Diman owned in 1840.

The Photographs series is comprised of 4 cartes-de-visite taken in Porto, Portugal, in the mid-1860s. Two portray Henry Wight Dimon in 1864 and 1865, and 2 depict Portuguese women.

This volume contains logs for the United States Navy ships Constellation (December 1825-April 1827) and John Adams (July 1827-October 1827), kept by Alexander Hamilton Marbury.

This volume contains logs for the United States Navy ships Constellation (December 1825-April 1827) and John Adams (July 1827-October 1827), kept by Alexander Hamilton Marbury. Martha Louisa Marbury contributed a list of musical definitions and a lengthy essay on Greek and Roman history and mythology. Most pages bear traces of plants once laid between the leaves.

The bulk of the volume consists of the log of the ship Constellation from December 1, 1825-April 28, 1827, during its service in the Caribbean Sea under the command of Melancthon Taylor Woolsey and, after mid-February 1827, under Commodore Charles G. Ridgely. Alexander Hamilton Marbury wrote daily entries about the ship's movements, the use of sails, encounters with other vessels, and daily occurrences onboard and in port. While at sea, Marbury included hourly charts of wind direction and the ship's course. The Constellation sailed primarily between the ports of Port Comfort, Havana, Pensacola, Matanzas, and Newark. The log of the John Adams, which contains similar entries, pertains to the ship's Caribbean and Atlantic service under Edward R. Shubrick between July 27, 1827, and October 16, 1827. The ship sailed from and returned to Pensacola; the final entries refer to a trip to Virginia.

The final part of the volume is in the handwriting of Martha Louisa Marbury, who lived in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. She copied a list of Italian musical terms and definitions (2 pages) and wrote a lengthy essay about Greek and Roman history and mythology (28 pages). Some parts of the later essay pages have been removed from the volume.