This collection contains the papers of Thomas Robinson Sharp, military road superintendent and colonel in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War and an official of various railways during the latter half of the nineteenth century. In a journal within the collection, Sharp briefly records his daily activities and whereabouts from 1859 to 1863. He makes some lengthier entries in 1862, mentioning battles and notable individuals, including "Stonewall" Jackson and Turner Ashby. The collection also contains an indexed notebook in which Sharp seemingly recorded anything which he found worthy of remembering, including such diverse subjects as statistics and procedures of various railways; instructions on personal behavior; home remedies; tools and equipment; Confederate postal rates; and many more. Interspersed among the handwritten notes are pencil sketches and clippings from published sources. Another similar volume contains Sharp's notes on railroad history and data on a number of different railway companies. A scrapbook of newspaper clippings is devoted entirely to an 1877 train collision on the B&O line at Point of Rocks, Maryland.

The collection includes two ledgers, one largely devoted to recording sales of food goods to various individuals and companies, the other a cash book. Sharp's correspondence for a few months in 1908 is contained in two letter copy books; the collection also includes a single letter to Sharp, written by F. E. Browne, regarding a water distillery. Completing the papers is a collection of ephemera added by an unidentified past owner. These items include several newspaper clippings from the 1960s and 1970s, largeley relating to Civil War topics in Warren and Frederick counties, Virginia; research notes on various topics; an article about composition, extracted from an unidentified magazine; and a sketch of Brooklyn, Bath & Coney Island Railroad locomotive 6 ("Clifford").