Papers regarding the authority of the council of the Zoological Society of London, including the legal opinion on the right of Council to grant pensions to staff and office; information regarding the illegality of Council's submitting its acts performed by virtue of the powers so conferred on them for confirmation or reversal by a General Meeting of the Fellows; Council's authority to appoint staff without reference to the Fellows; original authority for paying the Secretary; legal opinion regarding Dr Sclater's pension; authority to the Society to dispose of property and a codicil to Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell's will
Letters from Phineas Taylor Barnum to Philip Lutley Sclater regarding the purchase and transfer of Alice the elephant. Also a letter regarding the purchase of specimens for Barnum's Zoological Museum
Letters from William Saville Kent of the Museum and Institute of Pisciculture Society Limited, to Philip Lutley Sclater regarding the establishment of a marine observatory and laboratory in connection with the Brighton Aquarium, his appointment as Inspector of Fisheries to the Government of Tasmania, his application to become a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, his inspection of the fish house, enquiries about the vacant post of Prosector, and a proposed British Zoological Station for the study of marine animals and plats with relation to the advancement of the sciences of biology and economic pisciculture
Correspondence between Clarence Bartlett, Philip Lutley Sclater and Balmoral Castle regarding the skin and skeleton of a giraffe and the donation of the skin to the Natural History Museum. Also telegrams from Balmoral Castle sending the Queen's condolences on the death of the giraffe and her request that it should be buried
Letter from Henry Francis Blanford to Philip Lutley Sclater regarding an application from the Prosector's assistant at the Zoological Society of London for the post of Osteologist at the Indian Museum
Letters from Thomas de Grey to Philip Lutley Sclater regarding his expedition down the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico, skeletons of mammals for the Cambridge museum, and a paper on West Indian Microlepidoptera for the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London
Letter from the Sunday Opening Joint Deputation to Philip Lutley Sclater regarding the opening of museums, art galleries and libraries on Sundays
Letters from Edward Pierson Ramsay, Curator of the Australian Museum, to Philip Lutley Sclater regarding the transportation of a ceratodus to the Zoological Society of London
Letters from Carl Jacob Sundevall, Director of the Royal Museum Stockholm, to Philip Lutley Sclater regarding specimens found in the Museum such as Galapagos birds
Letter from Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas of the British Museum (Natural History) to Philip Lutley Sclater regarding the skin of a giraffe