The collection consists primarily of Skinker family correspondence, the bulk of which is between Thomas K. Skinker and his wife, Bertha Rives Skinker. The collection also contains several folders of tax receipts of Thomas Skinker dated 1839-1886. This finding aid was compiled by keying in the document descriptions on the folder covers. These document descriptions were presumably written by a Missouri Historical Society archivist soon after the collection was purchased in 1978.