Primarily a varied assortment of Waightstill Avery papers, 1768-1818, but the majority originated during the Revolutionary period. Personal papers include his journal from New Bern to Salisbury (1768) with a sketch of the route; his diary for 1769 in Virginia and North Carolina and a portion of his diary for 1776; and family letters from his brothers Samuel (1772) and Solomon (1783).

Among his papers of legal, military, and political interest are pre-Revolutionary protests against court abuses; his record of fees received in court (1771-1775) and his address (1777) to the grand jury of the Salisbury district; petitions (1776 and undated) to Governor William Tryon from inhabitants of Mecklenburg and Tryon counties; militia records, including a return for provisions furnished to Evan Shelby's troops in the Chickamauga expedition (1779); lists of goods for Indian presents; and several commissions for civil and military offices, two of which bear signatures of Governor Richard Caswell. A few of his notations on bonds and financial transactions (circa 1812-1818) are the only records kept during his later years.

Preceding the original manuscripts are a short biography of Waightstill Avery by his son Isaac T. Avery, and transcripts of other Avery papers loaned to Draper for copying (1878-1800) by Waightstill's granddaughter Mrs. Mary A. Chambers. Draper's correspondence, 1773-1774, with Avery's literary friend and protege, Silas McDowell (1795-1877), concerns participants in the Cherokee expedition (1776) and the geographical location of mountain forts involved in that campaign. Also found in this volume are Draper's copies of newspaper articles on Indian hostilities in North Carolina in 1756, and a printed broadside (1789) addressed “To the Head Men, Chiefs, and Warriors of the Creek Nation” by Andrew Pickens and H. Osborne, United States commissioners of Indian affairs.