This collection consists of 278 items, ca. 1829-1923, chiefly pertaining to the activities of members of the Rives, Sears, and Rhinelanderfamilies of Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York, respectively. The papers include correspondence, business and legal papers, genealogical papers, a diary, photographs, newspaper clippings, and memorabilia. The correspondence chiefly is between members of the Rives family, especially William Cabell Rives(1793-1868), Judith Page Walker Rives(1802-1882), William Cabell Rives, Jr.(1825-1889), Grace Winthrop Sears Rives (1828-), and William Cabell Rives (1850-1938), and, to a lesser extent, Sears and Rhinelander family members. Other correspondents include Lewis Minor Coleman (1827-1863), Edward Everett (1794-1865), Joseph Grinnell (1788-1885), William Mahone (1826-1895), Thomas Walker Page (1866-1937), Sir Lyon Playfair (1818-1898), and the Rev. Cornelius Walker (1819-1907).

Topics of interest in the correspondence include: politics; life at the University of Virginia; life in Paris, France ; travelling through Germany; William Cabell Rives, Jr.'s farm in Cobham; and the Civil War. A March 22, 1845, letter from New Orleans, Louisiana, in the Rhinelander correspondence, tells of being pulled along the Baratania Canal by slaves, and visiting the bachelor establishment on the nearby plantation. Political activities are discussed in Alexander Rives' December 3, 1834, letter to William Cabell Rives pertaining to the latter's senatorial race and the principle of instruction, and in William Cabell Rives' letters to his wife, Judith, concerning politics in Washington during 1844.

In a letter dated January 17, 1846, Lewis Minor Coleman writes William Cabell Rives, Jr., from the University of Virginia about the Jefferson Society and living on the East Range, then known as "Rowdy Row." Letters written to William Cabell Rives and William Cabell Rives, Jr., 1863-1868, are often concerned with the Civil War and its effects, especially on Southerners; and, in a letter written to his wife, Grace, on June 19, 1865, William Cabell Rives, Jr., refers to the "destruction of slavery."

In her letters, 1851-1852, to Grace Winthrop Sears Rives, Judith Page Walker Rives reveals much about Paris, France, during the 1851 coup d'etat and establishment of the Second Empire under Louis Napoleon. Also, during 1851, William Cabell Rives, Jr., writes his mother while travelling in Germany, describing several cities.

Various aspects of life in Cobham, Virginia, are revealed in N. B. Layne's 1853 letters to William Cabell Rives, Jr., concerning the management of the latter's estate, and in Judith Page Walker Rives' December 30, 1855, letter to Grace Winthrop Sears Rives describing the family's old fashioned Christmas party, as well as in letters of other members of the Rives family written from their home in Cobham. Correspondence between E. S. McSparran and William Cabell Rives, Jr., during 1854-1855 concern alterations in the plan of the latter's Albemarle County house, Cobham Park, and includes estimates and contracts.

Items of interest include a diary, 1860-1909, kept by Grace Winthrop Sears Rives, with many references to members of the Amory, Grant, Page, Rhinelander, Rives, and Sears families, and mentioning others, including Rev. F. K. Aglionby, William C. Dabney (1849-1894), Anne Cutler Hinckley (1813-1898), Einle George Money, Sir Lyon Playfair (1818-1898), and Bishop Henry Yates Satterlee (1843-1908). There appears to be much information useful to genealogical research. In addition, there is a letter of commendation from the French Republic, to Philip Newbold Rhinelander (1895-1918), for his service with the American Field-Hospital, accompanied by acommemorative medal presented to him.