Series 1, AMHERST ACADEMY, includes printed material (including circulars and catalogues), legal documents, financial records, notebooks, and miscellaneous records. Notebooks include Noah Webster's notes for the history of Amherst Academy and Amherst College, and records of two student organizations, the Franklin Society and the Platonic Society.

Series 2, INCEPTION AND FOUNDING OF AMHERST COLLEGE, theoretically ends with the granting of the Charter in 1825. This section is subdivided into four series:

• Sub-series A: General Files, 1818-1824
• Sub-series B: Charity Fund, 1818-1908
• Sub-series C: Amherst Collegiate Institution/A Charter for Amherst College, 1823-1825
• Sub-series D: The Charter, 1825-1891

Notes in this finding aid explain further the details of the arrangement, and the decision to include materials later than 1825, where appropriate. Those Amherst Academy records, principally from 1823-1825, that relate most directly to the efforts of its Trustees to obtain a charter for "a college in Amherst, Massachusetts" (as yet not named), have been collected in Series C, under the heading "Amherst Collegiate Institution." It is a somewhat arbitrary decision, since other names occasionally surface, but this appears to be most commonly used to refer to the institution as it evolved from an "academic department" within Amherst Academy but separate from it, to that which was chartered by the Massachusetts State Legislature as Amherst College on Feb. 18, 1825.

The inception/founding period may be considered to end with the granting of the charter in 1825; nevertheless, Section 2 also includes later materials, e.g. records relating to the Charity Fund that extend past the charter date. Like Amherst Academy, the Charity Fund does not have a linear relationship to the founding of Amherst College, but is synchronous with it and an essential part of it, since it secured the new undertaking financially and provided its supporters with a solid rebuttal against arguments that the new college would become a drain on the financial resources of the state.

The original College charter, as issued, with editions containing subsequent legislation, has been established as Series D of Section 2.

Some volumes of the Memorabilia Collection were disbound to integrate relevant materials into this collection. The bindings, etc. of those volumes are located in a box at the end of the collection.

Series 3, AFTER THE CHARTER, follows the development of the College through 1849 and is particularly rich in materials relating to the appeals for funds, both public and private, required to establish a firm financial footing for the new institution.

Section 4, 19TH CENTURY TRUSTEES OF AMHERST COLLEGE: For the purposes of this category of "Early History," 19th century trustees of the College are defined as those whose terms begin and end in the 19th century. This section includes the papers of Alfred Ely, James Fowler, Lewis Strong and Joseph Vaill. See also: Non-Alumni Biographical Files.