Papers are concerned chiefly with land holdings and business dealings of the Seymour family, and the related Bleecker family and Tibbits family; the development of business in the city of Utica, milling, banking, and iron manufacturing. Other topics include the Saint Mary's Ship Canal and connecting Lake Superior with the lower Great Lakes.

Include affidavits testifying to the excellence of the College of Agriculture at Cornell University prepared by Arnold and P. B. Crandall, and a letter from William C. Russel instructing Arnold on the preparation of his affidavit, 1874; a letter from Horatio Seymour to Arnold on the possibility of preparing a cheese suitable for Army use, 1878; and a letter from William C. Young thanking Arnold for his speech before the British Dairy Farmers Association, 1886.

Routine short letters from prominent politicians who hailed from New York State, including Washington Hunt, Horatio Seymour, William Henry Seward, and Frederick William Seward. Also, a card signed by F.W. Seward, subscribing for a copy of the book Fifty years among authors, books and publishers, by J.C. Derby.

Short, routine letters from William Henry Seward and Horatio Seymour. The letter from Seymour (1871), addressed to Nahum Capen, makes a brief comment on the Democratic Party. Also, a note from Seward paying his compliments and arranging to call on the recipient; and an undated letter from W.L. Money, conveying some other autographs he had detached from his files to his fellow autograph collector W.B. Sprague.