The varied careers of members of the Oliver family are recorded in minute detail through this collection. Through the generations, scholars can trace the achievements and contributions of the family in the fields of religion, law, medicine, politics, and the sciences. For example, the collection contains notebooks and diaries of Daniel Oliver (1787-1842) and Fitch Edward Oliver (1819-1892), both physicians with large practices whose records serve as a history of medical practice and progress in the early republic.

Within the Oliver family papers are papers of the Lynde family and of Jeremiah Mason, whose daughter married Fitch Edward Oliver. Mason was one of the most distinguished lawyers of his day, a colleague of Daniel Webster, and later U.S. Attorney-General.