Following Walter L. Newberry's death in 1868, his estate was managed for his immediate family - wife Julia Butler Newberry and daughters Mary Louisa Newberry and Julia Rosa Newberry - by estate trustees Blatchford and Bradley. The daughters died in 1874 and 1876, but no division of the estate to the collateral heirs and the Library was made until Mrs. Newberry's death December 9, 1885.

Papers contain business and personal correspondence, financial records, and legal records relating primarily to estate matters (income distribution, property assessments) and family living arrangements. Includes Newberry and Clapp family correspondence from the 1870's, significant correspondence from Mrs. Newberry and her daughters to the estate trustees, statements of receipts and disbursements, and property documents.