The collection consists of printed materials and correspondence compiled by the noted British music librarian, bibliographer, and musicologist Alec Hyatt King. The printed materials include offprints of articles, complete journal issues, exhibition catalogs, catalogs from music publishers and booksellers, membership lists and organizational histories, and concert programs.

Collection of 125 complete pieces of sheet music from European countries: Austria (5), Belgium (6), England (54), France (9), Germany (31), Italy (14), and the Netherlands (5). Most of these include title page illustrations, about 30 of which are in color. The collection includes an additional 24 partial works, most of which consist only of their title pages. The musical content consists of 44 works for solo piano and approximately 75 works for some combination of voice and piano.

The collection chiefly consists of sales and auction catalogs from book and antiquarian dealers, with an emphasis on music. There are also some catalogs of personal collections included. Forty-nine of the items are photocopies and the remaining items are originals.

The Jan Williams Collection of Images contains images of various performances and trips made by Jan Williams with accompanying performers and composers. An original gift was received of 321 prints and contact sheets and 54 35mm slides in 2007. An additional gift was received of 173 photographs in 2008.

Chiefly secondary materials such as articles and symposium papers collected by John Clough, many with correspondence.

Chiefly black and white photographs documenting Leo Smit's life and career in music.

The images in the collection provide documentation of performances at the University at Buffalo by Music Dept. faculty and visiting artists, especially in the realm of contemporary music. Among the many notable composers represented in the collection are: Earle Brown, Harrison Birtwistle, Pauline Oliveros, Colin Bright, Julius Eastman, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Lejaren Hiller, Cornelius Cardew, Carlos Chavez, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, Elliott Carter, David Del Tredici, Harold Shapero, Ralph Shapey, Ingolf Dahl, Henri Pousseur, Philip Glass, George Crumb, Fredric Myrow, Leon Kirchner, George Rochberg, New Rorem, Allen Sapp, Toru Takemitsu, Morton Subotnick, Leo Smit, and Augusta Read Thomas.

The images in this collection include scenes of music venues at the Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo in 1901, including the Temple of Music, the Midway, and bandstands. The collection also contains images of musicians who performed at the Exposition and musical instruments used at the Exposition.

This archive contains documents related to the planning and production the North American New Music Festival, a series of annual festivals of contemporary art music sponsored by the University at Buffalo Department of Music from 1983 to 1993, in 1995, and in 1996.

Contains sound recordings on 390 cassettes and 22 reels of performances from the North American New Music Festival, a series of annual festivals of contemporary art music sponsored by the University at Buffalo Department of Music from 1983 to 1993. The collection contains recordings of circa 720 musical works composed by about 334 different composers, including most of the most prominent composers of the 20th century. Many works were rehearsed and prepared with their respective composers in attendance and performers at the festival were chiefly specialists in new music.