The Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection consists of correspondence, literary manuscripts and other materials of literary, scientific, or historical significance that are generally unrelated by provenance and do not fit into any other existing manuscript collections. The material has been gathered together into a single collection for ease of access and for preservation. It also includes the Chapin-Kiley Manuscript Collection, 59 items dating chiefly from 1880-1890 that were collected by Samuel Chapin (AC 1880) when he was on the editorial staff of St Nicholas Magazine; the collection was preserved and later presented to Amherst College by his friend and fellow alumnus Marcus P. Kiley (AC 1919). The collection includes materials of such individuals as Lyman Abbott, Edward Beecher, Phillips Brooks, Walter Damrosch, William Lloyd Garrison, Rudyard Kipling and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by the author's or creator's name, by subject or by type of material, as appropriate.