This collection contains three pieces of correspondence, a handwritten political speech, a brief handwritten genealogy of the Bayley family, two cabinet card portraits, a child's glove, and an embroidered pocketbook. Notably, the embroidered pocketbook, correspondence, and political speech help document aspects of Fisher Ames's life as a young man, brother, and Federalist orator. The correspondence was written by Ames and his son John Worthington to Ames's sister and brother-in-law, Deborah and Samuel Shuttleworth. While these items can be associated with the Ames family, their exact relationship to the other items is unclear. The genealogy, photographs, and glove are undated and unattributed and appear to have been created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection was likely maintained by descendants of the Bayley and Fowler families, with whom the Ames family appears to have been connected by marriage.

Fisher Ames (1758-1808) was a lawyer and a prominent Federalist statesman from Massachusetts. Ames was born on April 9, 1758 in Dedham, Mass. He received an AB from Harvard in 1774 and an AM in 1777. Ames was admitted to the Suffolk County bar in 1781 and began practicing law in Dedham. In 1788, Ames served as one of Dedham's representatives to the Massachusetts convention to consider the United States Constitution, and in the same year was elected first to the Massachusetts General Court, and, in December, to the United States House of Representatives. Ames served in Congress from 1789 to 1797 as a staunch Federalist, and was well-known for his oratory skills. In 1806, the Harvard Corporation offered Ames the Presidency, but he declined due to his failing health. Ames died on July 4, 1808. Ames was to married Frances Worthington (1764-1837), and the couple had six sons and a daughter: John Worthington, Nathaniel, Hannah, William, Jeremiah, Seth, and Richard. Fisher Ames's sister, Deborah (b. 1747) married the Rev. Samuel Shuttleworth (1751-1834; Harvard AB 1777) (also spelled Shuttlesworth) on January 1, 1792.