The Gale family were based in New Hampshire; Emma Susan Gale Harris's grandfather Israel Gale was a descendant of Josiah Bartlett, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. John Greeley Gale, father of Emma Susan Gale Harris, was a physician who sold medicines for all kinds of ailments, particularly "women's illnesses." The collection includes some pamphlets and broadsides advertising these medicines. Emma's sister, Edith Irwina, ironically died in the Highland Spring Sanatorium in Nashua, New Hampshire. There is correspondence to and from Edith in her final year, and some documents related to her stay at the sanitarium. The day books and ledger are purported to be accounts kept by Israel Gale for the town of Newton, New Hampshire; and kept later by his son John Greeley Gale. The whaling logs are unidentified and may or may not be related to the Gale family.