The compiler of this cookbook may have lived in the Boston, Massachusetts, or New York area. It is possible the cookbook belonged to Augustus Reynolds. Collection consists of a handwritten (in several different hands) cookbook with recipes for cakes (including a recipe for loaf cake which includes the comment "not very good!" and recipes for "mountain cake," election cake, Boston cream cakes); snuckarnoodles (with the observation "They are the most delicious little cakes that I ever tasted when properly made. They can be easily spoiled in making, but why - is one of the things that no fellow can find out."); pancakes; waffles, "Whigs"; breads (including Jenny Lind, Sally Lunn, Astor House cornbread and Parker House rolls); puddings; calves foot jelly; ices; croquettes; chicken fritters; several oyster recipes; and fruit pickles. Several of the recipes are attributed to individuals such as "Mother" and "Aunt Augusta." The collection also includes loose recipes; clippings regarding an outbreak of cholera in Turkey and a treatment for the disease; a cure for dyspepsia; a program for a Unitarian Autumnal Convention banquet at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1862; and a letter to an Augustus Reynolds of New York, including a cough syrup recipe.

Norma J. Kane was a member of St. Clare of Assisi Church in the Bronx, New York and was co-director of the St. Clare of Assisi Pro-Life Group, which she helped found in 1997. The pro-life collection of Norma J. Kane contains meeting notes and agendas of the St. Clare of Assisi Pro-Life Group; St. Clare of Assisi Pro-Life Group fundraising and outreach materials; and pro-life pamphlets, fliers, and clippings collected by Kane.

English professor and pro-life advocate Jane H. Gilroy received a BA in English from Molloy College (1981), an MA in English from Hofstra University (1985), and PhD in English from Fordham University (1999). She was an adjunct instructor of English at Hofstra University (1984-1986) before beginning a career at Molloy College where she was an adjunct instructor in English (1981-1986), instructor of English (1986-1991), assistant professor of English (1991-2001), and associate professor of English (2001-2007). An active member of the pro-life movement since 1969, Gilroy published numerous scholarly and popular articles on the movement. She served as vice-chairman and secretary for the 1976 presidential campaign of Ellen McCormack, who ran on an exclusively pro-life platform, and authored a book on the campaign, A Shared Vision: The 1976 Ellen McCormack Presidential Campaign (2010). Gilroy was a founding member and president of the Long Island Chapter of University Faculty for Life. The collection contains mailings, press releases, speeches by McCormack, and clippings from local and national newspapers documenting the 1976 United States presidential campaign of Ellen Cullen McCormack, a Democratic candidate who ran on a pro-life platform. Materials document McCormack's pro-life stance, including her objections to the inclusion of pro-choice language in the Democratic Party platform; issues regarding campaign financing, including McCormack becoming the first woman to receive federal matching funds; and McCormack's efforts to be included on state primary and caucus ballots.

Earl W. Essex (1919-1992) was a Pennsylvania attorney and pro-life activist. He and his wife, Kathleen (1938-2004) provided financial support for Catholic, pro-life activist Joan Andrews following her 1986 arrest following an anti-abortion sit-in at The Ladies' Center, a women's health clinic that provided abortions, in Pensacola, Florida. During Andrews' imprisonment, they provided her with emotional support and courted media support calling for her release from prison. Excerpts from Andrews' letters to the Essexes appeared in the book You Reject Them, You Reject Me: The Prison Letters of Joan Andrews. The Earl and Kathleen Essex collection on Joan Andrews contains clippings documenting Andrews' participation in abortion clinic protests; photographs of Andrews; legal documents relating to Andrews' 1986 arrest following a protest at The Ladies' Center in Pensacola, Florida; correspondence between Earl Essex and Andrews' lawyer, Stephen Anthony Flynn regarding financial support for Andrews' defense; and letters Andrews wrote to the Essexes during her imprisonment.

Evelyn Z. Goodman was born in New York City in 1901, the daughter of Michael and Anna or Agnes (Siegel) Goodman. She had one younger sister, Estelle. Goodman attended the Alcuin Preparatory School, an all girls' school. In 1927 she married Arnold Kakse. Kakse died in 1945 and Goodman died in 1973. Collection consists of Evelyn Z. Goodman's Alcuin Preparatory School commencement album. The album was published by the Shalfield Publishing Company and includes sections (only some completed by Goodman) for autographs, clubs, dormitory recollections, roommates, athletics, photographs, dances and parties, commencement gifts, and other categories. Goodman's recorded gifts include five 20 dollar old pieces, a corset cover, a purse, and "a wonderful desk set." Photographs of the "office" and "cooking room," as well as of picnics and other excursions and events are included, as are messages from friends; invitation cards; and descriptions of a school outing, a yacht trip up the Hudson River, a picnic, and dances, including a masquerade ball Goodman and some friends held at the Oakridge Country Club, and the breakfast that followed. Goodman writes of the latter event, "I think everybody enjoyed themselves. I, of course cannot say much as it was my affair." The class motto is entered as "Yes!!" A program for the school's commencement exercises on May 15, 1920, is inlaid in the album; it includes the cast list for a play titled "The Shoes the Danced" featuring Goodman as a ballet dancer.

A physician who was the first woman appointed to the faculty at Harvard University, Alice Hamilton also worked as a resident researcher at Hull House, a researcher of industrial poisons for the United States Department of Labor, and a member of the League of Nations Health Organization and of President Hoover's Committee on Social Trends. For further information see Notable American Women, The Modern Period; Hamilton's autobiography, Exploring the Dangerous Trades (Little, Brown, 1942); and Barbara Sicherman, Alice Hamilton: A Life in Letters (Harvard University Press, 1984). Shirley Camper Soman was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1922. A social worker and child advocate, she published three books on children and childcare. Soman died in 2013. Collection consists of materials related to Alice Hamilton collected by Shirley Camper Soman. It includes photographs (including Hamilton with fellow recipients of the American Public Health Association's Lasker award); a New York Times article on Hamilton's 100th birthday; Hamilton's passport with stamps denoting travel to France, Italy, Switzerland, and other countries; a two-page list of names, ages, and parents of 'some children taken from Arkansas to Illinois, written in early 1865 by a Reverend Springer; and correspondence regarding a visit Soman and her daughter paid to Hamilton in 1969, with the goal of gathering information for a book on the history of social welfare Soman was writing. (This includes a letter from Hamilton's sister Margaret to Soman, noting that some days Hamilton is "active in her mind" and on other occasions sleeps all day.)