This series contains documents, clippings, and ephemera belonging to various members of the Patterson family. The earlier papers (bulk dates 1865 to 1890) are primarily related to the family house at 207 Congress Street and other properties, and include deeds, bonds, and financial records. The later papers (bulk dates 1912 to 1932) revolve around the collected ephemera of May Patterson and Annie Louise Patterson Jones. These items include the diaries of Annie Louise Patterson Jones, the scrapbook of May Patterson, the post card albums of Annie Louise Patterson Jones, a scrapbook and schoolwork of Emily Louise Jones, and correspondence. May's scrapbook contains clippings predominately relating to legal cases on the subjects of suffrage or women's rights. The family correspondence is primarily that of Annie Louise Patterson Jones, although the first folder contains some correspondence of May and all three folders contain correspondence of other family members with Annie and her daughter Emily. Finally, one drawing of May Patterson in legal attire is housed in an oversize box.

Also included in this series is the journal of George Patterson (b. 1847) for the year 1868, containing entries describing George's daily activities and search for employment from April to August of that year. Little biographical information regarding George Patterson is known, and the degree of his familial relation to the other individuals represented in this collection is not clear. Entries in his journal suggest that he was employed as a law clerk in 1868.

This series contains a variety of photographic formats, including prints and negatives, daguerreotypes, tintypes, cartes de visite, and cabinet cards. The photographs depict members of the Patterson family and their friends, though few photographs from the latter category contain identifications of the individuals pictured. The photographs themselves are mostly formal portraits, some of which are in Prospect Park, though there are also a few candid photographs, particularly the negatives, which are all vacation photographs. One of the posed portraits is of May at her law school graduation. The photographs have been divided by format and, aside from the prints, have all been physically placed with their respective format-based collections (daguerreotypes, tintypes, cartes de visite, and cabinet cards). The prints are housed in Manuscript Box 3.