The J. Hampton Barnes Collection of Autograph Letters consists of 37 documents, most which are letters written to Dr. David Hosack (1769-1835). After attending Columbia and Princeton, he began his medical practice in Alexandria, VA. He subsequently was Professor of Botany at Columbia and taught in the medical school. He was the attending physician at the Burr-Hamilton duel, a founder of Rutgers Medical College, a founder of Bellevue Hospital in New York City, and an author of numerous scientific works and biographies. The collection contains correspondence from a number of noteworthy people, such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Baron von Humboldt, and Sir Humphry Davy.