The bulk of Kimball's correspondence is related to his ministerial career in Beverly and Hartford. Included are letters discussing the establishment of Hartford's Unity Church in 1878 and correspondence documenting his rocky tenure with the church, largely due to his controversial sermon topics and ministerial style. January and February 1888 letters contain responses to his lectures and pamphlet in support of Chicago's Haymarket riot anarchists. Other topics include requests for copies of Kimball's sermons, the exchange of pulpits with area ministers, invitations to become the minister of various congregations, the publication of Kimball's writings and sermons, and other church and parish matters. Correspondents include Edward Everett Hale, James Freeman Clarke, Julia Ward Howe, and Nathaniel T. Allen.

Kimball's correspondence also includes five letters he wrote from New Bern, N.C. and Roanoke, Va., where he served as chaplain of the 8th Mass. Infantry Regiment in 1862 and 1863. Addressing Beverly's First Parish Sunday School, he describes his camp experiences, daily life among the troops, and New Bern under military rule.

Personal correspondence includes letters related to Ipswich's history and anniversary celebrations, as well as Kimball's real estate investments in Wichita, Kan. and Waynesboro, Ga. An extensive correspondence with Hartford parishioner Edith Spencer documents daily church activities and politics, as well as the Kimballs' family life and social activities.

This series largely contains receipts, including those for Amherst College tuition, taxes, utilities, household furnishings and repairs, real estate assessments, medical care, funeral expenses, and sundries. Also included are Kimball's 1860 marriage certificate; an 1872 deed for land in Olympia, Washington Territory; papers related to the administration of his father's estate (1869-1880); and papers related to the sale of Kimball's holdings in the Wichita Banking Co., where he served as president.

Kimball's writings consist of Ipswich high school essays written from 1847 to 1849, as well as numerous speeches, addresses, articles and poems written from 1854 to 1904. Topics include temperance, abolition, evolution, and his experiences in the American West. Many items are undated.

Kimball numbered and dated his handwritten sermons through 1862, although there are large gaps in the numerical sequence. Most sermons contain notations indicating the dates preached (some as many as four times), the title of the sermon, the Bible verse upon which it was based, and the handwritten text. Undated sermons appear to be drafts or sermons that were not delivered. Sermons were preached primarily in Beverly, Ipswich, Newport, Hartford, and Sharon, as well as the Washington Territory (1872). Many discuss abolitionism, temperance, workers' rights, and Unitarianism.

Artwork includes undated childhood watercolor sketches and a map of Ipswich as it was in 1832. Drawn in 1848, the map is a draft of the one found in Kimball's Miscellany, Vol. 1.

This series contains the correspondence, personal papers, diaries, and teaching records of Emily Richardson Kimball. They reflect her life and work as a teacher and school administrator, the wife of Unitarian minister John C. Kimball, and a women's rights advocate.

The papers of Joseph E. Kimball, Civil War veteran, machinist, inventor, and brother of John C. Kimball, include correspondence, financial papers, military papers, a Civil War diary, and memoirs of his war years.

Papers of Edward Taber Clarke, ward of John and Emily Kimball and brother of Grace Clarke Kimball Griswold, include correspondence, personal papers, school essays, and an 1884 diary.

John Flavel Griswold (1825-1898) was the brother of Theophilus Lyman Griswold. After Theophilus's death in 1884, John served as administrator of his brother's estate and guardian for his two minor nephews, Hiram "Hite" Griswold and Lyman W. "Will" Griswold. His papers contain a large amount of bills and receipts for books, lumber, farm supplies, printing, taxes, and sundries. Also included are 1885 estate settlement papers for his brother Theophilus, legal correspondence regarding the support of his nephews, and 1887 report cards from the Powers Institute of Bernardston, Mass. for Lyman W. Griswold and Alice Harrington.

Lyman "Will" Griswold's papers contain correspondence about Amherst College and his Beta Iota fraternity with his college classmates in 1892 and 1893, correspondence related to his application for the position of Fitchburg grammar school principal in 1893, and correspondence related to his study of law by mail with the Sprague School of Law in Detroit from 1894 to 1895. Additional correspondence documents his business with his brother Carl at the Rochester Cycle Co. in Rochester, N.Y., including plans to sell bicycles, advertising, and financial records. Also included are Will's early undated school papers, including exercises in arithmetic, geography, and German.

Will's account book, kept from 1912 to 1944, records rental property payments and expenses, as well as accounts with his children Lyman W. Griswold, Talcott Griswold, and Elizabeth Griswold.

Grace Kimball Griswold was the adopted daughter of John and Emily Kimball and the wife of Lyman W. Griswold. Her papers include school papers, financial accounts, genealogical correspondence, pocket diaries that she kept during her childhood and again in her early married life, and a scrapbook containing newspaper clippings related to her family's life.

The Barrett and Locke families were ancestors of Emily Richardson Kimball and her son-in-law Lyman W. Griswold. (Emily's mother and Lyman's grandmother were sisters.) Papers in this subseries include accounts for payment on a bond of John Locke, dated from 1813 to 1822; an 1818 personal property inventory of Urania Barrett; and several other receipts and memoranda.

Mercy Taber Clarke was the biological mother of Grace Kimball Griswold. Her autograph album contains poems and quotations from friends and acquaintances, dating from 1852 to 1860.

Emily "Kitty" Bullard was the daughter of Joel Bullard and Augusta Richardson Bullard and the niece of Emily Richardson Kimball. Her diary discusses her daily life and activities in West Newton, Mass. and Chicago. She frequently mentions John Kimball, with whom she corresponded regularly. A list of accounts is in the back of the volume.

Included is a 1770 receipt for six pillars for the Roxbury meetinghouse; an 1816 essay by N. Kingsbury written for Newton Academy; 1847 memorials for Betsy Crosby of Putney, N.H.; an 1863 New Hampshire teaching certificate for Jennie M. Bartlett; and other writings, poems, and receipts.

Most likely collected by Grace Kimball Griswold, material includes 18th-century lists of family births, marriages, and deaths; copies of gravestone inscriptions; a Taber family tree; Grace's DAR application for her ancestor Archippus Cole; a birth certificate for Alice Kimball Darmond; and a marriage certificate for Mercy Tabor Carpenter and Joseph Clarke.

Included are John's printed letters and articles about his 1863 experiences as an army chaplain in New Bern, N.C.; reprints and excerpts of his sermons, including his 1870 farewell sermon at First Church in Beverly; descriptive articles and essays about the Pacific Northwest, the White Mountains, and sailing expeditions; essays on evolution and temperance; his 1897 speech at the dedication of Ipswich's Soldier's Monument; articles about the history and culture of Ipswich and Newport; and genealogical articles.

Included are 22 articles published in the Milford Journal and Hopkinton Banner from 1877 to 1887 describing Joseph's personal recollections of the battles of Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Bristow Station, Groveton, Bull Run, Chantilly, and Williamsburg; the Richmond and Peninsula campaigns; and the evacuation of Yorktown. Also included is a small amount of patriotic poetry, written from 1877 to 1886.

This subseries contains newspaper clippings and ephemera including Ipswich celebration programs; church service programs; the 1873 order of exercises at John Kimball's installation at the Channing Memorial Church in Newport; the 1879 constitution of the First Unitarian Congregational Society of Hartford; and family obituaries. Newspaper articles chronicle John Kimball's ministerial work in the Washington Territory in 1871 and the dedication of Ipswich's Soldier's Monument in 1897 and include numerous critiques and descriptions of Kimball's sermons. Also included is an undated "Dictionary of Chinook Jargon," published in Portland, Oregon.

Included is an 1818 list of students at Bradford Academy, an 1865 auction broadside, and the 15 Nov. 1902 issue of The Woman's Journal containing an obituary of Emily Richardson Kimball.