The Mount Washington Summit Road Company Records largely contain the correspondence and papers of E. S. Coe as they relate to the ownership, business, and legal proceedings of the company. There are significant papers and correspondence revolving around the legal battle between the Estate of David Pingree and the Mount Washington Railway Company and other defendants.

In an attempt to respect the original order of the collection, many papers that were bundled together by the creators were kept together, even if they intellectually belonged with other papers. Therefore, a researcher will find some correspondence interspersed with the financial records and with some of the surveying records, as well as in the correspondence series.

Series I. Land Records has been separated into three subseries. Subseries A. Deeds and Abstracts of Title is comprised of legal documents, notes taken from documents at the registry of deeds, and other documents that outline the history of ownership of a tract of land. Subseries B. Surveys includes surveyor notebooks and loose memos created while surveying the various grants in the White Mountains. This subseries also includes surveys of logs on various tracts and calculations of trespasses, which refers to the unpermitted cutting of logs on private property. Subseries C. Maps and Plans are mostly oversized documents that represent to scale the areas surveyed. This subseries includes mainly copies of plans and surveys, prepared for trial and dating from the early 1890s.

Series II. Corporation and Legal Records consists of two subseries. Subseries A. Incorporation Papers and Corporate Records includes a copy of the charter, leases and agreements, stock certificates, meeting minutes, insurance policies all relating to the business of the summit road. It also contains documents regarding the businesses of various railroads. Subseries B. Lawsuits is comprised not only of the papers revolving around the lawsuit between the trustees and the Railway Company, but also copies of speeches given to the legislature and courts, records of documents turned over to lawyers and the courts, briefs, and loose memos and notes.

Series III. Financial Records has been organized into three subseries. Subseries A. Account Books includes financial records in bound volumes. Subseries B. Accounts, Vouchers and Receipts are represented by reimbursements for employees, supply purchases, tolls collected, accounts with the estate of David Pingree, and costs for stabling and caring for horses. It also includes labor bills for "services on the road" for various contractors, most paid at a rate of $1.00 per day. There are a few tax receipts found amongst the bills, but not consistently for each year. Finally, this series includes a statement of tolls taken over the season and an inventory of items left in the various buildings on the property at the end of each season, usually dated in early October. Subseries C. Taxes include tax bills, circulars from the IRS, and memos of taxes paid by the company.

Series IV. Correspondence is mainly made up of letters received by E. S. Coe and some copies of the letters he sent in reply. There are large amounts of correspondence with Silas F. Peaslee, Henry Heywood, David Pingree, Israel Ham, and Harry Sargent. This series also includes correspondence with George H. Moses, the secretary of the New Hampshire Forestry Commissioners, from 1894 to 1896. Correspondence is grouped chronologically by topic. It can be assumed that the correspondence is that received by E. S. Coe unless otherwise noted.

Series V. Newspaper Clippings is made up of clippings from various newspapers dating from 1853 to 1893. The identified papers mainly include the Concord Evening Monitor, People and Patriot, and Foster's Daily Democrat. Most of the clippings are brief articles summarizing the day's progress in the legislature as it relates to the Mt. Washington Summit Road Company and various railroad bills. As the newspapers are quite fragile, use copies were made for researchers and the originals restricted. There are also several full issues of Among the Clouds, the paper printed by Henry M. Burt, from the top of Mount Washington, dating from 1887 to 1899 [incomplete run]. The newspapers are organized chronologically.

Series VI. Post 1906 Papers includes newspaper clippings, information about the Weeks Act, and other ephemeral items from after the Pingree family sold the Summit Road to the Libby family in 1906. This series contains a small amount of correspondence between Stephen Wheatland and Robert S. Monahan of Dartmouth College, and the college itself dating from 1956 and 1962.

Series VI. Miscellaneous includes scraps of paper and envelopes with notes as well as an inventory of papers in this collection. The inventory was prepared prior to transfer to the Phillips Library.