The papers of Charles E. Bessey are comprised of correspondence, publications and articles, and a workbook. The correspondence consists of letters written to Bessey, and letterpress books of letters Bessey wrote. The correspondence is largely professional in nature. The workbook contains notes and observations of experiments, inventory of a museum and herbarium, inventory of equipment in the botanical department, an outline, and a letter. In addition, there is a Systemic Botany notebook. The publications consist of an article about Bessey, a scientific article about germ plasm, and an 1885 realtors brief. The collection also contains articles written by Bessey on botany topics, other topics of interest to him, and reviews of books and articles.