The bulk of the collection contains the correspondence of William Hayes Ward, editor of The Independent, a New York Congregationalist weekly, with notable literary and historical figures. Some of the correspondents in the collection include General John Charles Frémont, American explorer and expedition leader; P. T. Barnum, showman; and Asa Gray, the preeminent American botanist of the 19th century. Other items in the collection include American literature and theater papers, colonial historical manuscripts and documents, and correspondence with the library of the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary, the predecessor of Old Dominion University. Series I has been digitized and is available in the Old Dominion University Libraries Digital Collections.

This collection does not include physical copies of the Independent newspaper. Several volumes of the newspaper have been digitized by the Hathi Trust.