The collection includes the papers of John Barth (born 1930), American novelist and short-story writer, who is best-known for his contributions to postmodern literature. The collection spans the years 1930 to 2014 and consists of manuscripts, typescripts, and galley proofs of Barth’s writings; correspondence; reviews; and other professional papers.

The collection consists of two letters from Thomas Eagleton to E. C. Goodall regarding his lecture at Hopkins on September 26, 1972; two newspaper clippings; and a typescript of the lecture.

Thomas Gresham Machen (born 1886) was an architect and book collector. The collection consists of clippings of Baltimore newspapers from 1859, correspondence from 1909 and 1945 relating to rare books, and an undated biographical sketch of Maryland colonial settler, Margaret Brent.

Alfred North Whitehead was an English mathematician and philosopher born on the Isle of Thanet in 1861. The bulk of the collection is formed by correspondence between some members of the Whitehead family: Alfred North Whitehead, his wife Evelyn Willoughby-Wade Whitehead, their son T. North Whitehead, and their daughter-in-law Margaret Whitehead dating from the 1920s-1940s.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Italian Studies at Villa Spelman was established in the early 1970s in accordance with the bequest of Leolyn and Timothy Mather Spelman. The property was sold by the university in September 2008. This collection consists of records of the Villa Spelman from 1961 to 2009; the bulk of the material dates from 1980 to 2000.

Vincent DeMarco was an American advocate for handgun control and assault weapons bans, tobacco taxes, and universal health care born on May 23, 1957 in Trevico, Italy. The collection includes business correspondence, research, polls, newspaper articles, pictures, advertising tools, and video and cassette tapes from 1980-1998.

William Bullock Clark was an American geologist born in Brattleboro, Vermont on December 15, 1860. The papers consist of correspondence, invoices, and a scrapbook spanning 1888-1925.

William F. Lucas and family owned the Lucas Bros. printing and stationery business in Baltimore in the 19th century. The Lucas family papers include correspondence, diaries, financial documents, photographs, and scrapbooks relating to the family and their business, including writing books by William F. Lucas' daughter, Bertha E. Lucas, and papers related to William's brother, art collector George A. Lucas.

Correspondence, publications, writings, photographs, and other personal papers of William Hand Browne, an early Johns Hopkins University librarian and English Professor, a life-long resident of the Baltimore area, and a Confederate sympathizer who helped promote the racism of the "Lost Cause" mythology in the years following the American Civil War.

William Stone Grauer (born 1915) entered the freshman class at Hopkins in 1932. The papers span the period 1926 through 1940 but the bulk revolve around his freshman and sophomore years, 1932-1934. The papers are largely the correspondence among William and his parents Mr. and Mrs. Albert Lee Grauer and his sister Betty Alice Grauer.

A scrapbook containing letters, newspaper articles, and speeches of William Sulzer.

William Worthy (July 7, 1921 – May 4, 2014) was an African American journalist and activist. The collection includes the following topics and genres: correspondence, biographical information, writings, newspaper clippings, advocacy, teaching (including his tenure at Boston University), travel (specifically Cuba, the USSR, China and Iran), notes, files, and printed matter.

Wilmer T. Bartholomew was a professor of music at the Peabody Institute and Goucher College who specialized in acoustics research, singing technique, and choral conducting. The Bartholomew papers contain published and manuscript scores composed by Bartholomew as well as various notes, research, correspondence, and publications.