The papers in this collection have cross-reference slips in the manuscript catalog and fuller descriptions in the inventory catalog. However, these slips do not indicate where in the collection items may be found. It may be necessary for the reader to look in several containers in order to find an item. Unless the item is one of the few which this listing mentions individually, or is likely to be one of the autographs in box 15 or one of the large legal documents in folio 21 A+B, it is probably best to begin by checking under the proper date in boxes 1-9. Small legal documents will also be found here. If the item is not found, the reader should check folios 18 and 21 A+B (or box 12 if the date is 1848 or 1850). Items in these folios, as in boxes 1-9, are in chronological order and may be quickly found. It is possible, however, that an item, to which a date is assigned in the catalog, has been misfiled in the "undated" section at the end of boxes 9 and 10, folio 48, and folio 21 A+B.
This collection is no longer expanding. New acquisitions are being added instead to the English Miscellaneous Manuscripts - Numbered Series, and individually cataloged in the manuscript and union catalogs.