The Adams, Fisher, and Hallett family papers is comprised of a wide range of original documents including correspondence, a bible record, deeds, diaries, family registers, marriage intentions, newspaper clippings, photographs, probate records, recipes, receipts and wills. There are numerous poems, stories, lectures and addresses written by various family members. The photographs, many of which are identified, include daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes. There is also a painted miniature portrait of an unidentified woman with a lock of hair in the back.

This collection of family papers focuses on the family of William Sydney and Elizabeth Inglesbee (Hallett) Fisher and the family of their daughter and son-in-law, Edward Payson and Ellen (Fisher) Adams. The Hallett and Fisher families lived in Yarmouth and Barnstable, Massachusetts. Born in Castine, Maine, Edward Payson Adams lived on the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) for twenty years before returning to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1885.

The correspondence is primarily personal letters written between family members, the bulk falling between 1857-1934, with descriptions of their health, trips, social activities, summaries of business dealings, and notices of births, marriages and/or death of family members. The collection contains a few letters written by Sandford Ballard Dole, President of the Republic of Hawaii from 1894-1900. There are several letters written by Elizabeth Inglesbee (Hallett) Fisher’s brother Henry and her half-brother Andrews who moved to Chico, California in 1849 and 1850 – the time of the Gold Rush. There are also letters written by Elizabeth’s son Elijah Loring Fisher and William Fisher who moved to Minnesota during 1879. The collection contains correspondence written by Edward Payson Adams while in Hawaii during the late 1870's as well as letters from his sons Lieutenant-Commander Ernest Germain Adams, US Navy Reserve and partner in the banking firm of Kinsley & Adams, and Philip Adams, a U.S. Consul. There is also a small amount of business correspondence and some letters concerning the military service of Charles Adams.

Of particular interest is a record of marriages by Rev. Wakefield Gale from 1826-1880. Ellen Fisher Adams' involvement with the Women’s Suffrage Movement is represented in this collection by a few letters to government officials and the editor of the Herald as well as a typescript list of "Songs for a Women Suffrage Rally". The collection also has a hand written musical score for "Blessed are the poor in spirit" and a 6 July 1768 letter from John Dickinson (1732-1808) in Philadelphia to James Otis (1725-1783) in Boston includes the revised lyrics for Dickinson's The Liberty Song. There are diaries written by three generations of women -- Elizabeth’s mother Mehetable Davis (Cobb) Hallett, Elizabeth Inglesbee (Hallett) Fisher herself, and Elizabeth’s daughter Ellen (Fisher) Adams. Finally, the collection has several handmade children’s books either hand written or a typescript with hand drawn illustrations including Rollo's Reminiscences, The bunnie nonsense book (dated 1898), and The Last Leaf of Lettuce, picked by the spotted one, and garnished by the younger bunny.