The bulk of this collection houses legal documents, correspondence, plats, and other items documenting James A. Rogers' life and work. Among the subjects shown are rail and steamboat shipments in the 1850s and 1860s, land grants and sales (including land grants given in recognition of service in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War), transaction records of enslaved individuals from the 1840s to the 1860s, the Civil War (including the construction of Fort Pillar north of Memphis), and Rogers' service in the Tennessee State Legislature.