The Bradley Family papers measure 2.25 linear feet and date from 1811 to 1992. The papers are arranged in seven series: Genealogical information; Rhoda Ogden/Henry Bradley/Abijah Fitch correspondence, David O. Bradley/ Cornelia Fitch Bradley/ Lué  Bradley correspondence, Lué Bradley diaries, Account books and scrapbook, Emma Bradley Middlebrook family correspondence, and Photographs.

The Genealogical information series includes a family tree and various materials about the family including newspaper clippings, David Bradley's will (1873) and a plat of Dobbs Ferry identifying the Bradleys' property. A copy of an article, "Longfellow's Letters to Cornelia Fitch," by Sargeant Bush, Jr. (Books at Iowa, No. 6, April 1967) completes the series.

Papers of the Prentiss family and the Shrauger family, descendants of David and Cornelia Bradley, are also held by the Iowa Women's Archives. The three collections together include correspondence of seven generations.

A small amount of correspondence of David Bradley's parents from the early nineteenth century is included in the Rhoda Ogden/Henry Bradley/Abijah Fitch correspondence series (1811-1865). Photocopies of letters written between 1839 and 1865 from Abijah Fitch, Cornelia Fitch Bradley's father, to William Henry Seward, Secretary of State, 1861-1869, complete the series. The originals are in the University of Rochester (New York) library.

The bulk of the Bradley family papers is devoted to the David O. Bradley/Cornelia Bradley/ Lué Bradley correspondence series (1864-1894) and to the Lué Bradley diaries (1879-1891).

The diaries (1879-1891 scattered) were written by Lué Bradley from the time she was eleven and continuing through the age of twenty-one. She writes in detail of the family, her schooling, recreation, health, travels and social activities.

The Account books and scrapbook series (1881-1905 scattered) includes an account book kept by Cornelia Fitch Bradley during her 1893 European trip and another kept by Lué Bradley during the first years of her marriage (1893-1905). The scrapbook kept by Lué Bradley for approximately the same period as her diaries includes programs, photographs, tintypes, and other items documenting her social life.

Many of the letters and diaries have been transcribed and typed by the donor, Virginia Shrauger Jones, granddaughter of Lué Bradley. Each transcription is filed with the original document.

The Emma Bradley Middlebrook family correspondence series (1927-1992 and undated, scattered) includes materials from Emma to her niece Cornelia Prentiss Shrauger; as well correspondence between Emma's daughter Cornelia (Tissy) Baekeland Hallowell, and Cornelia Prentiss Shrauger, Tissy's cousin; and the correspondence of Emma's grand-daughter, Cornelia (Dicki) Bagarotti with Virginia Shrauger Jones, Dicki's cousin.

Eight letters to Cornelia Fitch from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written prior to her marriage to David Bradley, are held by the Special Collections Department, University of Iowa Libraries (MsL L853 fi, Longfellow to Fitch).

A book, Savage Grace, by Natalie Robins and Steve Aronson (William Morrow, 1985) has been removed from the Bradley Family papers and shelved with the printed works in the Iowa Women's Archives. The book concerns Tony Baekeland, the great-grandson of Emma Bradley Middlebrook. Baekeland, an heir to the Bakelite plastic fortune, murdered his mother, Barbara Baekeland, in 1972 and committed suicide in 1981.