This collection (1835-1966, date span), which is organized as an alphabetical file, contains correspondence, including reminiscences,  copies of manuscripts, and research materials.  Individuals and subjects covered include Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Betsy Mix Cowles, Mary Hosford Fisher, Charles Grandison Finney, Marianne Parker Dascomb, the Amistad slave-ship case, antislavery, the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, early Oberlin women, and Elmira and Wesleyan colleges.  Statistics on the occupational and marriage patterns of Oberlin graduates, 1837-1926, are included in an undated paper by Louis D. Hartson.  Among Hosfod’s correspondents were James T. Fairchild, W.G. Frost, Emma Monroe Fitch, W.B. Gerrish, Helen Keep, Juia Finney Monroe, Margaret Maltby, Edward S. Steele, Eloise Steele, and Florence M. Snell.

The papers of Frances J. Hosford were transferred to the Oberlin College Archives from the Oberlin College Library on 27 March 1969.