Primarily correspondence and some personal materials from Barnard family members and related families. The materials of Alice Lucretia Barnard includes correspondence to family members and a good deal of material pertaining to her financial dealings. Also includes material from the W. W. Barnard Seed Co., owned by William W. Barnard.

The Civil War material include letters written by Daniel E. and Erastus A. Barnard, and Willard Wilcox. As part of the Eighty-eighth Infantry Illinois Volunteers, Captain Daniel E. Barnard's letters are especially detailed, describing troop movements and camps throughout Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, and encounters with his Wilcox relatives, Willard, Wilber, and John who were also enlisted. He took part in battles at Murfreesboro and Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia and discusses the deaths of fellow soldiers. There are also several letters from soldiers to Captain Daniel Barnard following the war regarding military pensions. His niece Emma J. Barnard Graham also received letters from soldiers George P. Sherman and Philip Flood. It is unclear if there is any relation between them and the Barnard family members who were also fighting.