The Bryan mss., 1849-1863, are chiefly the letters of George Washington Bryan, 1825-1893, physician, exchanged with his wife, Alice (Calhoun) Bryan, during his period of service in 1862-63 with the Union forces along the Mississippi River on the steamers Glasgow, the Tigress, the P. J. Pringle, and at Young's Point, Louisiana. He served as assistant surgeon with the 67th Infantry, Indiana Volunteers, from December 6, 1862, to May 27, 1863.

Letters were also exchanged in 1849 (in one of which a poem is appended) while Alice was attending Allegheny Collegiate Institute in Pennsylvania. An Autograph Album, "Flowers in Frolic," decorated with several drawings and watercolors, was inscribed during the year 1849 by her classmates with two later notes by Dr. T. J. Cooper in 1852. Several mementoes were laid in the Album including a piece of petitpoint and a cornucopia in watercolor with the note "Painted by Papa - Oxford, Ohio. T. A. Wylie."

Other letters were received from (Miss) M. F. H. at Bloomington in 1861 and from James Darwin Maxwell in 1863 who writes on stationery with an Indiana State University letterhead and comments on the number of doctors in Bloomington.

Some of the letters are accompanied by typescripts.

A poem written in pencil in a child-like hand entitled "A talk with a dressmaker in the slums & how it ended," Undated and not signed, completes the collection.