The collection is composed of journals kept by Stow, letters written by and to Stow, various other of his writings, and financial records and miscellaneous material.
The correspondence may be grouped as follows: a) letters to Stow from his father (1811-1812), b) letters by Stow and to Stow (1820-1824), c) three letters from the years 1829-1835, d) fourteen letters Stow wrote from Europe, mainly to his brothers and sisters (1837-1839), and e) a few letters Stow received in the late 1840's, mainly replies to invitations.
Stow's journals cover the period July 1833 to March 1834, when he was in Rochester, and from December 1837 to October 1838, when he was in Europe. There are also fragments of a journal written when Stow was in Ohio, probably in 1840. The journals describe what Stow did, and record his impressions. Like his letters, they are revealing, but cover only brief segments of his life. There is almost nothing on the years which Stow spent in Wisconsin or on his childhood.
The folder of writings does not fill the gaps mentioned above, as it contains only some poetry, random notes, and a speech (probably from the late 1840's) on the Bar's “rights and privileges and...duties and obligations.”
The folder of financial and miscellaneous material is exiguous.
