The Bernays mss., 1890-1955, consist of manuscripts collected by Louise (Lee) Bernays, 1888-1974, librarian of The Indianapolis News for twenty-three years. Materials include poet Eugene Field's "Mojesky as Cameel," written September 11, 1890, in London for his Chicago Daily News column "Sharps and Flats" on September 27, 1890; letters and other items of Charles Warren Fairbanks, 1852-1918, vice-president of the United States, and his wife, Cornelia (Cole) Fairbanks, 1852-1913; letters by novelists and lecturers of the 1920s to Florence (Webster) Long, 1882-1955, newspaper society editor, in her capacity as president of the Woman's Press Club of Indiana; two letters from John Edgar Hoover, 1895-1972, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; correspondence about the Eugene Field article on Helena Modjeska in the 1940s; letters of political personages, Homer Earl Capehart, 1897-1979, U.S. senator, and Eleanor (Roosevelt) Roosevelt, 1884-1962. Autographs of Maude Adams, 1872-1953, actress (on a photograph), Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, 1874-1965, James Whitcomb Riley, 1849-1916, poet (on an envelope to Romeo Johnson); and Lewis Wallace, 1827-1905, soldier and author, complete the collection. Some of the letters are accompanied by notes written by Mrs. Bernays.

The correspondents are Homer Earl Capehart, Verner Warren Clapp, Charles Warren Fairbanks, Cornelia (Cole) Fairbanks, Edna Ferber, Phillips Lee Goldsborough, John Edgar Hoover, Fannie Hurst, Henry Robinson Luce, Thomas Riley Marshall, Gene (Stratton) Porter, Mary (Roberts) Rinehart, Eleanor (Roosevelt) Roosevelt, Margaretta Muhlenberg (Perkins) Tuttle.

Printed materials consist of clippings about Eugene Field; a printing of "Modjesky as Cameel" from Town and Country, July 1959; clippings about Modjeska Canyon in California; an Abe Martin cartoon of Margaretta Tuttle's Feet of Clay; and a clipping about a Lew Wallace manuscript.