This collection is comprised of the shipping and business papers of Michael Shepard and his son, Michael Webb Shepard. The bulk of the collection is related to Shepard's shipping activities at ports in East Africa from 1835-1855, when he traded in ivory, copal, textiles and cloves.

This collection contains three albums of black and white photographs of the Indigenous Peoples of South America, most likely in eastern Peru, taken sometime in the late 19th century. Most of the photographs were taken by Charles Kroehle, Georg Hübner, or both (Kohl).