This collection includes materials compiled by Butler University professor Esther A. Renfrew Paddock related to her research on Madame de Staël of France. There are also magazines and other works related to the Bonaparte family and their time in power, as well as research on and manuscripts by French historian and woman of letters Countess Pauline (de Broglie) de Pange. Many of the materials are in French.

This collection also includes books related to French history, as well as a box with 32 playbills from plays around the world, most of which relate to France in some way.