Manuscripts on the Amazon Odonata and four letters from Henry Walter Bates were found in the private papers of Friedrich Ris at the Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt, Germany. They contain descriptions as well as sketches and coloured illustrations of Odonata collected by Bates during his eleven years (1848–1859) on the Amazon. Bates recorded about 194 species-group names and proposed 13 new genera and subgenera of Odonata. Some of these taxa were subsequently described and published by Edmond de Selys Longchamps, René Martin, and Friedrich Ris. Annotations on the genera Oxystigma and Aeschnosoma are given, and several valid species are associated with species-group names used by Bates. An annotated list of species described from specimens of Bates manuscripts is provided and corresponding labels of type specimens are noted where possible. Type specimens of Polythore batesii, P. inaequalis, P. vittata, Chalcopteryx scintillans, Triacanthagyna satyrus, Aphylla dentata, and Progomphus intricatus are discussed in connection with Bates' manuscripts. In addition, specimens of Neuraeschna dentigera, Staurophlebia gigantula, S. reticulata, and Rhodopygia geijskesi are discussed when associated with species names used by Bates.