The documents primarily consist of his diplomatic, financial, and personal correspondence, along with business papers and memorabilia, detailing his career as a diplomat for the U.S. in France, Holland, and Spain, and his later business ventures and extensive land speculation in the United States. These documents offer rich historical insights into the French Revolution, U.S. foreign relations and debt, early American business and finance, and Short's views on slavery and colonization.

The people in the Short Papers feature influential figures of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, such as his mentor and friend Thomas Jefferson, and other American and European diplomatic, financial, and political leaders like James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Marquis de Lafayette, and Diego de Gardoqui. The collection also includes correspondence with French aristocrats such as Rosalie de La Rochefoucauld, with family members like his brother Peyton and nephew Charles W. Short, as well as various business associates and personal acquaintances.

Willima Short was connected to different organizations, starting as a young man at the College of William and Mary to the American Colonization Society and the American Philosophical Society in his adult life.

Short's correspondence offers a rich window into late 18th and early 19th-century history, covering a wide range of topics from international relations to social issues to business interests.