This collection consists mainly of Charles Edwin Bessey’s handwritten notes and drafts, including a “list of flowers analyzed” (1867, 22 pp.), a freshman botany lecture (1878, 16 pp.); notes on the importance of enthusiasm in teaching botany (1914, 4 pages); and notes to his friend and renowned botanist Asa Gray (2 pp.). In addition the collection includes papers on the topics “the Phyla, Classes, and Orders of Plants” (12 pp.); “Robert W. Furman’s Work on Forestry” (9 pp.); and Filices, Equisetaceae, Lycopodiceae, Musci, Hepaticeae, Characeae and Thallophyta (19 pp.). Also found here are two letters (1899, 1901) appointing Bessey a collaborator in the Division of Forestry, U.S.D.A., a printed invitation (1909) to a banquet at the University of Nebraska in honor of his fortieth year as a professor of botany, and other items.