Incoming correspondence and copies of occasional outgoing letters from Francis Blake, chiefly regarding personal, family, and business matters in Boston and Weston, Mass. Of particular interest are letters concerning Blake's attempts to sell his transmitter patents to national and international telephone companies; correspondence with the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company of Rhode Island concerning machinery and tool manufacture for Blake's laboratory; correspondence with Charles Follen McKim (1847-1909) regarding the landscape design of Keewaydin; a letter dated 31 Jan. 1881 from Alexander Graham Bell; a life-long series of letters from Blake's brother Charles H. M. Blake concerning his business ventures in Mexico; correspondence with Boston area photographers; references to theater performances of Edwin Thomas Booth (1833-1893); and an account of the imprisonment of Jefferson Davis at Fortress Monroe.

Official incoming correspondence to Francis Blake from the U.S. Coast Survey office, chiefly regarding business matters. Correspondents include Charles O. Boutelle and Thomas Oliver Selfridge (1836-1924) commissioning Blake as an astronomer with the Darien Exploring Expedition to survey the Isthmus of Darien, S.A., for an interoceanic canal, as well as expense and pay accounts and charts and notebooks of weather, birds, and general observations at Observatory Island, S.A. Also, instructions for astronomical measurements from Julius Erasmus Hilgard (1825-1891) with respect to Blake's surveys determining the differences in longitudinal measurements between Greenwich, England, and the United States; letters and news clippings regarding a federal investigation for alleged misappropriation of funds by Boutelle and Hilgard; and a scientific ledger book charting survey points at Keewaydin.

Estimates, bills, and receipts for the design and construction of Keewaydin, Francis Blake's home in Weston, Mass.

Correspondence and specifications with Lord & Burnham Company of New York, horticultural architects and builders, for the design of the Keewaydin greenhouse.

Scrapbooks of bills and receipts for food and dry goods including clothing, furniture, interior decorations, photographic supplies, tools, fuel, and tack purchased by the Blake family at Keewaydin.

Correspondence and diagrams detailing the development of the Blake transmitter for the telephone, patent offers to Bell Telephone and New England Telephone, attempts to patent the transmitter worldwide, other electrical inventions, and various inventions from other inventors. Also, tables and graphs recording the number of telephone calls made from selected Boston metropolitan phone lines, and one volume of monthly earnings reports of American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Correspondents include Alexander Graham Bell, John Elbridge Hudson (1839-1900), and Thomas A. Wilson.

Correspondence, bylaws, financial statements, lists of officers, minutes, and annual reports, chiefly of Boston area clubs and societies, including the Boston Camera Club, Somerset Club, St. Botolph Club, Union Club, American Society for Psychical Research, the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Good Citizenship, and others. Also, scrapbooks of The Country Club, Brookline, Mass., with bylaws, financial statements, club rules, programs, race lists, and advertising ephemera of horses and horse racing at Clyde Park, as well as correspondence regarding the purchase and sale of thoroughbreds.

Will of Benjamin Sewall, inventory, and executor's and trustees' probate accounts.

Correspondence relating to Francis Blake's personal health, pathological reports, EKG, physician's diagnoses, and laboratory reports on well-water and toxic arsenic levels in wallpaper.

Personal and legal correspondence regarding settlement and distribution of the Trumbull estate to heirs, as well as surveys of Trumbull real estate holdings in Worcester, Mass.

Correspondence with French and European wine producers and importers, as well as a scrapbook of wine lists, price lists, recipes, advertisements, and news clippings of wines, champagnes, brandies, and other foreign and domestic liquors.

Correspondence, announcements, and invitations with respect to members and guests, featured speakers, entertainment, transportation and other arrangements for biannual club meetings hosted by Francis Blake at Keewaydin.

Correspondence; advertising catalogues from the Henry R. Worthington Pumping Engines and Water Meters Company, New York; and meter readings and bills rendered to local customers of the Keewaydin Water Works, Weston, Mass.

Correspondence, ballots, flyers, speeches, and news clippings regarding political candidates and issues of Weston town, Massachusetts state, and national interests, including the controversial presidential campaign of William Jennings Bryant.

Incoming and copies of outgoing correspondence from Francis Blake, selectman, with respect to Weston town business, including the design and construction of the Charles River Bridge, Weston Public Library, the development of the Weston fire department, Weston town seal, and the introduction of paved roads, water, sewer, electric and telephone utilities, and other public services, as well as selectmen committee minutes, bylaws and warrants, budgets, ballots, and lists of town officers.

Disbursement vouchers to Louisa Jackson from Francis Blake, trustee.

Manuscript volume, ca. 1849, recording births, deaths, and marriages of the Blake family (1689-1849) in England and Massachusetts. Correspondence with genealogists and photographs of the Blake family and homes in England.

Correspondence chiefly with Francis Blake's attorney, Philip Dexter, with respect to personal investment decisions and actions in stocks, bonds, annuities, mortgages, and Boston real estate.

Correspondence, contracts, and receipts related to the construction of a bridge over the Charles River on land owned by Blake in Newton, Mass.

Correspondence and topographical maps concerning the Davenport Stone on Doublett Hill, Weston, Mass.

Correspondence to Francis Blake concerning his daughter Agnes and her personal health, future and wellbeing, including reports from a hired personal detective.

Correspondence and reports of the Committee to Visit the MIT Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering, as well as the Jefferson Physical Laboratory at Harvard University, regarding their physical facilities, faculty, and student status.

Official correspondence to Francis Blake, treasurer, regarding securities, investments, and the management of the Academy's Rumford Fund.

Correspondence and news clippings from Women's World Magazine and Jenness Miller Monthly.

Typescript of Extracts from a History of the Massachusetts General Hospital, 1872-1846, by William Tudor. Letters to Francis Blake acknowledging the MGH history book as a gift.

Correspondence with Francis Blake concerning the ill health of Edward Wilson, an assistant to Alexander Graham Bell, who was institutionalized at the Massachusetts State Hospital at Taunton and the McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass.

Scrapbook, 27 June 1902, of Harvard University's 1902 commencement bestowing an honorary degree of Master of Arts to Francis Blake, along with correspondence, programs, news clippings, and biographical notes.

Business correspondence, bylaws, meeting agenda, reports, and financial statements of Ludlow's jute and hemp manufacture.

Legal correspondence to Francis Blake, executor, with respect to the management of Wells's estate.

Correspondence, news clippings, and investigative reports of Robert Craighead for Francis Blake by an agent of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency.

Sunday bulletins, prayer leaflets, and correspondence regarding church business and activities at New Lowe Falls, Mass.

Typescript letter from Charles T. Hubbard to Benjamin Sewall, 1845. Invitations, guest list, and news clippings of the debutante ball, 1895, for his daughter Agnes Blake. Letters from Elizabeth Blake, while traveling throughout the United States, to husband Francis.

Correspondence and power of attorney to Francis Blake from his brother Charles.

Correspondence and contracts of Lane Lamson & Company, Lane family wills, and deeds to Weston, Mass., lands. Letters, 1872-1873, from David Lane while on a cattle drive with his young family from Missouri to Wyoming.

Oversize documents removed from manuscripts.

Hubbard business account book recording the import and wholesale exchange of cotton, pig iron, tobacco, and sugar for New England manufacturers. Elizabeth Blake cashbook detailing domestic expenses and silver inventory. Francis Blake's personal ledger and trial balance.

Two scrapbooks of news clippings, theatre broadsides, menus, and other ephemera detailing the social life and customs of Boston. Scrapbook of bills and receipts for food, hotels, transportation, and clothing while traveling in Paris, Marseilles, and Rome, including a trans-Atlantic crossing on the S.S. La Bretagne from New York and a holiday at the Casino de Dinard, Saint-Enogat, France. Scrapbook of holiday greetings, calling cards, and invitations to whist parties, dinners, open houses, dedications, commencements, weddings, and birthdays. Menus from a wide variety of eating establishments, including restaurants in Boston and France, railroad dining cars, and vacation retreats, particularly Glen House, New Hampshire.