 Gunsaulus was a very active collector of books and artwork.An avid reader, he collected many books, letters and autographs written by those who appealed to him.The Butler-Gunsaulus Collection at the University of Chicago contains 340 American and European manuscripts and letters by authors such as John Adams, William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Greeley, Washington Irving, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, William Henry Seward, Frederick Douglass, and George Washington.