Records of several generations of Ives family members and their associated businesses. Includes unidentified day book from Lyons and Salisbury, N.Y., 1848; letters and documents, 1852-1858, relating to James H. Ives. Items relating to Charles Lewis Ives include a letter and a a penmanship book, 1862; two account books, 1863; and five cash books, 1864. Also miscellaneous items relating to the Manheim Cheese Factory, 1872-1875 and Cook & Ives Cheese Factory, 1882-189?; an account book, 1890; and a ledger, 1918-1950.

Additional items include Cook & Ives Co. account book, 1885-1894 and cheese book, 1887-1892. Letters, bills, contracts, etc. relating to the cheese business and discussing markets in Philadelphia and New York, suppliers, and cheesmakers. Letters also include family news, occasionally with Civil War commentary (including a hanging "traytor Jeff Davis" in effigy in Amsterdam NY). The family letters mention cheese/family business in Friendship, and Rushford (Allegheny Co), and extended family 'merchants' in remote reaches of Pennsylvania, as well as the large firm in Philadelphia, run by a cousin. The letters also mention the fur trade, lumbering, transport of goods by canal and rail, costs, good shippers, and market futures. There are letters from, to and about former fellow-students at Fairfield and Fulton Academies. Also, photographs of people, cows, buildings, and working farm life, ca. 1885-90. Also print outs of digitized photos of Ives family members. Also a lid from a Cornell University cottage cheese container.