The three main individuals all have the same name. Hugh Lenox Hodge and his son Hugh Lenox Hodge were both associated with the University of Pennsylvania medical faculty; grandson Hugh Lenox Hodge was a rancher in New Mexico. The Aspinwall and Woolsey families were related by marriage to the Hodges: Margaret Aspinwall married the senior Hodge; Harriet Woolsey married his son.

The collection has two separate areas of chronological and geographic focus. One relates to the first two Hodge gentlemen, in the northeastern United States, mainly in the mid-19th century; the other pertains to the youngest Hodge, in New Mexico around the turn of the century. In the first group, primary emphasis is on correspondence between members of the Hodge, Aspinwall, and Woolsey families. One selection of letters is from Harriet and Caroline Woolsey, describing their trip to Cuba in 1867. Also present are handwritten and typescript unpublished and published biographical materials. Miscellaneous records include family expense account books, legal papers, and cash books. Items related to the Civil War are a scrapbook of illustrated newspaper clippings from 1861, and letters written by Jane S. Woolsey to her cousin Margaret Hodge from 1861-1865. A substantial collection of 1860s photographs, mostly cartes-de-visites, depict family members and unidentified individuals. Most were taken in Philadelphia and New York studios, including those of Sarony and Brady; the Parisian studios of Nadar and Disderi are also represented.

Within the later group of items related to the grandson Hodge are photographs, 1897 to 1910, depicting ranch life near Silver City, NM. Letters are written to him in his position as chairman on several boards of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, and concern topics such as grazing rights on National Forest land. Ledgers and journals from his XSX Ranch, and his Diamond Bar Cattle Co., span the period 1891 to 1937.