Business records including receipt books, ledgers, journals, accounts and other papers.

In 1806 Rodgers married Minerva Denison, daughter of Gideon Denison, Jr., merchant of Sion Hill, near Havre de Grace, Md. Three of the Rodgers sons entered the Navy. Frederick, a midshipman, was drowned in 1828 at Norfolk. John, a surveyor and naval engineer, served in the Civil War and died as a rear admiral in 1882. Henry was lost off the California coast in 1854. Robert Smith Rodgers, the eldest, was a civil engineer; he operated the family farm at Sion Hill, and served in the Civil War as a colonel, and later was deputy collector of the port of Havre de Grace. He married Sarah Perry, daughter of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, in 1841, and two of their children, Frederick and John Augustus, also served in the navy.

Henry Denison, brother of Minerva Denison Rodgers, operated the family farm at Sion Hill before his nephew Robert and served as a U.S. Navy purser.

The bulk of the John Rodgers material relates to his various naval assignments: with the West Indies Squadron, 1799-1802, commanding the sloop of war Maryland; with the Mediterranean Squadron against the Barbary pirates, 1802-1806, commanding the sloop of war John Adams, the frigates New York and Congress, and at various times commander-in-chief of the entire squadron; commanding the New York Flotilla (of gunboats and bomb vessels) and Naval Station, 1807-1810, following the war scare occasioned by the Chesapeake-Leopard incident and, with the abandonment of the gunboat philosophy, directing his command of the brig Argus, the sloop of war Wasp and other vessels from the frigate Constitution; commanding "the northern division of ships for the protection of the American coast," 1810-1814, with the frigate President as his flagship; commanding the Delaware Flotilla and the frigate Guerriere under construction in Philadelphia, 1814; President of the Board of Navy Commissioners responsible for administering the navy material, 1815-1837, with two interludes - commanding the West Indies Squadron, 1823, aboard the schooner Shark in the relief expedition to Thompson's Island (Key West), and commanding the Mediterranean Squadron, 1825-1827, with the North Carolina as his flagship, and the Constitution, the frigate Brandywine, the sloops of war Erie, Ontario, and Warren, and the schooner Porpoise under his command.

The Commodore Rodgers materials include: Incoming correspondence, 1803-1835, mainly from fellow naval officers. Letterbooks (including incoming letters), official correspondence, 1799-1803, from the Maryland, John Adams, New York; 1802, from Baltimore, reporting to President Madison on Santo Domingo experience; 1814, from Philadelphia; 1823-1824, from the Shark; 1829-1830, from Navy Commissioner's Office; 1834, from Navy Board of Revision. Logs, 1812, of the President; 1824-1827, of the North Carolina. Court-martial proceedings, 1807-1808, for the bomb ketches Vesuvius and Etna; 1810-1812, for the Wasp, Argus, Constitution, sloop of war Hornet; 1826, for the Constitution. Stores books (receipts and expenditures), 1804-1805, for ship of the line Constellation, Mediterranean Squadron; 1809-1814, for the Constitution; 1819-1820, for ship of the line Columbus, built by Navy Commissioners Board; 1824-1827, for the North Carolina. Requisition books, 1814, for the Guerriere; 1825-1827 for the North Carolina, Constitution, Brandywine, Erie, Ontario, Warren, Porpoise. Survey order books, 1808-1812, for the New York Flotilla and for the Northern Division; 1825-1827, for the Mediterranean Squadron.

Account books, 1805-1806, for the Constitution and other Mediterranean vessels; 1807-1810, for the New York Flotilla, including specified gunboats, the Constitution, the schooner Revenge; 1810-1813, for the President; 1824-1827, for the North Carolina and the Mediterranean Squadron; some John Rodgers personal accounts, such as house expenses, 1815-1817, are interspersed in these volumes. General orders books, and quarter, station and other bills, 1802-1804, for the John Adams, New York, and Congress; 1807, for the New York Flotilla of Bombs and Gunboats; 1809, for the Constitution; ca. 1810, for the President; 1824-1826, for the Mediterranean Squadron. Record book of commercial vessels boarded, 1808-1809, by New York Flotilla gunboats and the Constitution. Muster roll, 1809-1811, for the Constitution. Meteorological diary, 1824-1827, for the North Carolina. Liberty books, 1826-1827, for the North Carolina. General orders and outfitting instructions for naval vessels, signal books, stores and requisition books, calculations for naval ship construction, ca. 1805, ca. 1815, 1825-1827, 1833-1834, n.d.

There is material for the sons and daughter of Commodore John and Minerva Rodgers. The material for Frederick Rodgers includes: astronomy copybook, ca. 1825; pocket station bill, 1825, for the North Carolina; black book or punishment book, 1825-1827, maintained by Frederick for the North Carolina; log, 1827, for the North Carolina.

For Henry Rodgers there are: logs, 1837-1840, aboard the sloop of war Fairfield, the brig, Dolphin, and ship of the line, Independence, 1842, aboard the brig, Somers; navigation work book, 1840-1842, aboard the sloop of war, Levant; at rear, arithmetic work book; personal logs and diaries, 1850, aboard the mail steamer Georgia, 1850-1851, aboard the mail steamer Falcon, 1852-1853, aboard unnamed steamer carrying mail, cargo, passengers; night order book, 1851, for the Falcon, continued as Robert S. Rodgers, survey notes, ca. 1850's, for the Hartford County, Md., properties.

For John Rodgers (Jr.) there are purser's accounts, 1840-1841, for the schooner Wave. Quarter, watch, and other bills, ca. 1841, for the schooner, Boxer.

For Robert Smith Rodgers there is incoming correspondence, 1835-1863, mainly family, and records for work as canal engineer, 1836-1838. Other volumes include prize agent's memorandum book, 1846-1847, for the steamer, Mississippi; diary and expense accounts, 1846-1857, at Sion Hill, with some ca. 1850's survey notes interspersed; custom house book, 1877-1885, weekly reports of collections at Havre de Grace. For Louise Rodgers there is an Arithmetic work book, 1826 and commonplace book, 1829-1836.

There are also papers for the grandsons of Commodore John and Minerva Rodgers. The material for Frederick Rodgers includes: diary, 1854, at Sion Hill; copybook, 1860, while at the Naval Academy, watch bills, (between 1855 and 1861) for the sloop Marion, 1862, for the frigate Santee, ca. 1864, for the screw steamer Grand Gulf, 1870, and for the sloop of war St. Mary's; letterbook, 1873-1876, official naval correspondence aboard the screw steamer Despatch.

The material for John Augustus Rodgers includes: diary, 1867, of summer cruise aboard the sloop of war Macedonian and Paris visit and notes on navigation, 1869, aboard the steam sloop Pensacola.

Papers for Minerva (Denison) Rodgers' father, brother, and brothers-in-law include: Gideon Denison letterbook, 1792-1794, business letters concerning trade matters; Ezra Denison letterbook, 1799, from Natchez, continued, Henry Denison, 1800-1801, from Natchez, New Orleans and Havre de Grace; Henry Denison letterbooks, 1808-1809, on settlement of father's estate; 1815-1821, official correspondence on his purser's accounts and assignments. Sion Hill account books, 1804-1807, estate accounts; 1816-1819, same, and at back, purser's accounts, 1816-1817, for the Congress; 1818-1819, personal house expenses. Incoming correspondence and accounts as purser, 1807-1821, including especially accounts while prisoner in England following August 1813 capture of the Argus, paying and supplying American naval prisoners at Chatham, Plymouth, Dartmoor. John D. Henley: Enlistment receipts, 1813, as recruiting officer at Baltimore for the schooner Asp. Correspondence, 1817-1818, official exchanges aboard the John Adams with General Louis de Aury on the surrender of Amelia Island to Rodgers. Log, 1819-1821, of the Congress on cruise to China from Norfolk and return, first American naval vessel to visit a Chinese port. Alexander S. Wadsworth: Log and regulations, 1829-1831, as captain of the Constellation.

The Commodore Matthew C. Perry materials include: correspondence, incoming and outgoing, 1825-1852; letterbooks, official correspondence, 1830-1832, as commander of the sloop of war Concord carrying John Randolph of Roanoke to Russia, continued 1833-1837, as second officer of the New York Navy Yard; 1842-1843, as commandant of the New York Navy Yard; 1846, from New York on the propriety of an increase of naval steamships, continued, 1847, aboard the Mississippi, commanding the Home Squadron at Vera Cruz, continued, 1848-1849, on special duty at New York superintending construction of ocean mail steamers; 1847, commanding the Home Squadron aboard the Mississippi at Vera Cruz, Tuxpan, Tabasco; 1848, commanding Home Squadron aboard the frigate Cumberland; log, 1832, of the Concord; record book, 1843-1844, containing minutes of conferences with native chiefs and of proceeding of councils of naval officers, as commander of the Africa Squadron; also notes of events at Cape Palmas involving difficulties between American settlers and native tribes; essay on the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color and settlements established by the Society; letters, private, involving either colonization or aspects of the cruise.

A small collection of printed general orders, 1863-1865, Admiral John A. Dahlgren to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, is also included in this collection of Rodgers Family Papers.

Records of the Fredonia Council, located in West Philadelphia, of the Order of United American Mechanics.

Business and personal accounts with description of a trip to Paris.