This collection contains photographs of five generations of the Smith-Steele-Medlock-Davenport family gathered for Elizabeth Hawkins Smith's 93rd birthday. Also included is a watercolor drawing of Jasper Smith (1836), Martha Ellen Smith Paden's brother, who died during the American Civil War. Of special note are photographs of “Auntie Gracie” and Wilkes Smith, two formerly enslaved people who worked for the Smith family. Robert S. Paden took the photograph of Wilkes Smith.

This collection contains letters from the widowed Thomas B. Robertson to his mother Harriet in DeKalb County, concerning the future of his children; and letters to his children.