The Hector Humphreys papers include letters, sermons, a commencement speech, and a manual for farmers.

Series I contains letters written to Humphreys between 1821-1856. Correspondents include students and colleagues from Yale and Washington College, religious colleagues, and a letter from his niece, Adeline C. Griswold. Humphreys also corresponded with Denison Olmsted, a professor at Yale, about a scientific apparatus, demonstrating Humphreys’s interest in science and his search for materials to improve St. John’s science program.

Series II contains Humphreys’s sermons, an 1852 St. John’s College commencement speech, and a manual for farmers on the chemistry of soil and manure. All items are hand-written and bound, and illustrations of soldiers or other men are pasted on the front cover of the sermons and commencement speech. The sermons were given in churches around Annapolis and Eastport such as St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, All Hallows Church, St. Margaret’s Church, and the Naval Academy.