The collection primarily contains bills and receipts of Francis Dana and other Dana family members as well as bills and receipts of Francis Dana's contemporaries including Israel Thorndike. There is correspondence of the Dana family members including letters from William Cullen Bryant to Richard Henry Dana as well as correspondence between Richard Henry Dana III and William Penn Cresson about the latter's biography, Francis Dana, a Puritan diplomat in the court of Catherine the Great. There is a small amount of correspondence and other materials received with the collection whose relationship to the Dana family is unclear.

• In English.

The Dana family was prominent in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Francis Dana (1743-1811), son of Richard Dana, was a Massachusetts revolutionary leader, member of the Continental Congress, unofficial United States Minister to Russia, and Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Edmund Trowbridge was Francis Dana's brother in law. Francis Dana's son, Richard Henry Dana (1787-1789) was a literary scholar and edited the periodical Idle man. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-1882) was the United States Attorney for Massachusetts during the Civil War and author of Two years before the mast. Richard Henry Francis Dana (1743-1811) was a Continental Congressman and Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.