The Samuel Bancroft Barlow papers, 1798-1876, consist of letters from other Barlows concerning the family's genealogy, research notes and manuscript family histories by Barlow, and printed circulars and certificates from medical institutions and societies and the Massachusetts Militia. There are also letters from colleagues and associates including physicians Eli Ives (1779-1861), Joseph F. Jewett (1788-1859), and Vincent Holcombe, and a small amount of legal documents.

Samuel Bancroft Barlow (1798-1876) was a homeopathic physician in East Granville, Massachusetts, and New York City, and professor of materia medica and therapeutics at New York Homoeopathic Medical College. Samuel Bancroft Barlow was born in Granville, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1798, to Tabitha and Edmund Barlow. In 1812, he entered a private academy run by Reverend Timothy Mather Cooley (1772-1859). For several years, Barlow studied medicine under West Granville physician Vincent Holcombe and Dr. Joseph F. Jewett of Granby, Connecticut. He then matriculated at Yale Medical School, earning an M.D. in 1822. After graduation, Barlow returned to practice medicine in his home town. He was also a regimental surgeon in the Massachusetts Militia until 1830. Barlow lived in Florida for several years before he moved to New York City in 1841, where his practice increasingly focused on homeopathic treatment. He was one of the founders of the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1844, and in 1863, he was appointed professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the New York Homoeopathic Medical College. Barlow married Rhoda Hopkins Wadsworth, and their children included New York attorney Samuel Latham Mitchill Barlow (1826-1889). He died in New York on February 27, 1876.