This subseries contains materials concerning the Society as a whole, generated by the president and the administration of the MHS, including correspondence, a visitor register, scrapbooks, and other papers related to organizational matters. Most of the correspondence is that of Charles F. Adams, Jr. when he was president of the Society (1895-1902). Earlier materials (1791-1894) consist of miscellaneous loose papers and letters, mostly written to other officers of the Society, that were not part of any other series in the pre-1900 archives. Correspondence also includes letters (1812 and 1856) regarding the disposition of William A. Burwell's manuscript on Bacon's Rebellion, published in the Collections (2nd series, vol. I); manuscripts for publication; donations; the Lowell lectures (1869); George Ellis's silver bequest (1895-1899); and many other topics.

General administrative volumes include 1791 records (copies made at a later date); a Society visitor register, 1858-1918; and an early letterbook of the Society, 1791-1798, with letters of Jeremy Belknap. A note by Charles Deane at the beginning of the volume describes it the "first and only 'Letter Book' of the Society." This subseries also contains a 100th anniversary scrapbook (disbound), 1891; and two large scrapbooks (Vols. OS 2-3) of newspaper clippings and a few manuscripts concerning miscellaneous historical topics in the United States and abroad. Vol. OS 2 contains a wide range of clippings dating back to 1758. The compiler of the scrapbooks and their connection to the MHS is unknown.

This subseries contains a manuscript volume of "laws and regulations of the MHS," written in 1833 by the standing committee for printing and distribution, as well as two volumes of minutes of standing committee meetings. No separate record of the work of the standing committee was kept prior to 1857. (See note at the beginning of Records, vol. I.) Beginning in 1857, the recording secretary served as the secretary of the standing committee.

This subseries consists of correspondence and papers of the recording secretary; official minutes of the Society meetings, kept by the recording secretary; and materials related to the controversy regarding the disposition of Thomas Hutchinson's papers.

This subseries contains letters written to the corresponding secretary, mostly concerning election to the Society; "communications" on historical topics; and letters about donations to the Society's "collections" (art, artifacts, and manuscripts) and "library" (published materials). Included are a number of letters written by the authors of historical works, forwarding copies of their books to the Society. The records consist of two "series" of correspondence, originally tipped into 12 volumes. The first series (Boxes 14-23) is the principal one, and the second series is comprised of materials found after the first series was tipped into volumes. (See note at the beginning of 2nd series, vol. I.) Items have been removed and numbered according to their order in the volumes.

The treasurers' papers consist of correspondence, bills, receipts, accounts, etc. Some correspondence relates to donations of library and cabinet items. The papers were originally tipped into volumes in rough chronological order, but have since been removed and arranged in chronological order.

NOTE: Vol. I, presumably dated 1791-1824 or 1825, was destroyed by fire (date unknown).

This subseries contains other account books kept by the treasurer, or account books of MHS monies kept by other people. Included are miscellaneous accounts such as publications, binding, funds, various expenses, etc., as well as loose papers related to funds and financial committees.

This subseries consists of printed annual "statements" and annual reports of the treasurer. Included are some gaps in the chronology, but all of the treasurers' reports have been published in the MHS Proceedings.

The "Library Letters" consist of correspondence concerning donations, acknowledgements, permissions, research queries, requests to borrow items, letters of introduction, library visits and use of the collections, queries and donations from other historical agencies, etc. Also included is correspondence related to the printing and distribution of MHS publications. Letters were originally arranged alphabetically and tipped into volumes. They have since been removed from the volumes, but their original arrangement has been maintained.

This subseries consists of many different versions and dates of library catalogs, both in print and in manuscript. A number of the catalogs contain printed pages glued into volumes with manuscript annotations and additions. Also included are miscellaneous lists which were not clearly identified or dated, such as lists of printed materials of various types.

This subseries contains records of books borrowed by MHS members and officers.

This subseries contains records of materials exchanged with other institutions.