This collection centers on Dorothea Handel Schuhmacher, who was originally from Bretten in Baden-Württemberg and immigrated to the United States in 1855 with her husband Peter Schuhmacher; the couple eventually settled near the town of Rome in central New York state. The collection includes letters exchanged between Dorothea Handel Schuhmacher and her father Gottfried Handel and other letters from family friends. The letters were inherited by Dorothea Handel's daughter Minnie and contributed to the German Heritage in Letters project by Minnie Schuhmacher's great-granddaughter Linda Stauf.