Letters, memoirs, journals, sermons, monographs, genealogical material concerning the Goodwin, Archer, Silvester, Ballard and Smith families.

The bulk of the collection is comprised of the papers of Frederick Deane Goodwin, an Episcopal minister.  Bishop William Meade is a correspondent.  Correspondence between Frederick Deane Goodwin's immediate family is included and papers of his son, Edward Lewis Goodwin, an Episcopal minister and his granddaughter, Mary Frances Goodwin, a researcher for Colonial Williamsburg.

Much of the correspondence, journals and recollections concern the Goodwin Family and/or the Episcopal Church in Virginia and elsewhere. Mary Frances Goodwin's letters are from her time in France at the end of World War I and her discovery of the Bodleian Plate in 1930.

Volumes include diaries, journals and registers of Edward Lewis Goodwin, correspondence between family members and letters to and from Mary Frances Goodwin during World War I while she was working with the YMCA in France as part of the American Expeditionary Force. The Episcopal Church of Virginia is mentioned often in the correspondence by all family members.

Included is a memoir by Mary F. Goodwin on her discovery of the Bodleian Plate, a copper printing plate with buildings of 18th century Williamsburg, and a memoir of Wytheville, Virginia during the Civil War.