Henry Isaac George Eekhoff was born in 1879 and married Frances Elinor Keyworth in 1902. Doris L. Bigglestone, a 1927 graduate of Mount Holyoke, was his cousin. Eekhoff lived in the South Pacific and had two children, Stanley Gordon and Dorothy. Eekhoff fought for Britain in World War I , and then worked in Lau, Australia where he owned a store and tried gold mining. In 1957, he retired with his wife to Cairns, North Queensland. Frances died in 1964. Henry Eekhoff died in Australia, in his nineties.

The Henry Isaac George Eekhoff Papers contain correspondence and photographs sent to relatives, including Dorothy L. Bigglestone Heath, Mount Holyoke College graduate, 1927. The letters chiefly describe Eekhoff's experiences as a farmer and gold miner in Papua New Guinea and Australia, 1921-1957, with most of the letters written from the Matanatar plantation. Eekhoff provides detailed descriptions of the local people, landscape, and agricultural production of the plantation. Of special note with the collection are Eekhoff's comments on the Pacific Theater of World War II, the "Iron Curtain," and the Korean War. Eekhoff talks about United States interest in the Pacific, as well as the development of the space program. Also included are photographs of Eekhoff's World War I service.