Charles B. Barry letter to Miss Mary Ann West, circa 1840

The Mary Ann West collection is arranged at the folder level beginning with the earliest chronological date and ending with a series of undated folders. There are 12 folders in total. The earliest dated item is an 1821 land indenture in Baltimore City between William West and Jane Fitze, and Mary Ann F. Dieter. The other four documents concern deeds of land in Baltimore County name the involved parties as Evan Lyons, Frances Olivia Barnes, William A. Barnes, William P. Dieter, and Sarah J. Anderson. Other 19th century manuscript items include a handwritten copy of "Flora's Dictionary", two letters to Mary Ann West circa 1840-1843, an undated poem by Mary Ann titled "A Gem for Every Month", and West's last will and testament written in her own hand and dated 1876. There is also an undated cabinet card photograph of Mary Ann West taken in her old age, and a color photograph of the Sarah Miriam Peale's 1830 portrait painting of West. The collection also contains a modern-yet undated-photograph of Mary Ann West's tombstone in Greenmount Cemetery.

The collection also contains genealogical research and information on the Jessop and Dail families, to whom Mary Ann West was either related or connected. Folder 8 contains a letter dated July 11, 1991 from Mary Read Cooper, who owned the Peale portrait of West. In her letter to an unknown recipient addressed as "Dear T," Cooper outlines the Jessop family genealogy and some of the connections to Mary Ann West. Folder 9 contains genealogical research on the Dail family, to whom Mary Ann West was related. This folder contains two family charts and a narrative on the family.