Three sketchbooks; the first, 1893-1894, containing sketches from his student years at the Columbia School of Mines, Department of Architecture (he received his degree in 1894); the second, 1894-1896, containing sketches made as a student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris; and the third, circa 1896-circa 1905, containing sketches for a variety of projects and designs. Buildings and other structures depicted include the Academy of Music on 14th Street, New York City (a seating plan); Wells Fargo Bank Building, Portland, Oregon, 1910; Reunion Hall, Princeton University, 1902; lantern for the Aetna Building, Hartford, Connecticut; Woodland Street entrance to Kinney Park, Hartford, Connecticut, 1905 (some drawings are by others). Program notes from the classes of Paul Blondel and J. Gaudet at the Ecole des Beaux Arts are included. Also, designs (some done in partnership with Joseph Urban) for proposals for the Metropolitan Opera Company on various sites in New York City, circa 1920s; and designs for shopping and music centers in New York City, to 1936.

Architectural drawings and photographs of architectural drawings with some related correspondence of residential and public buildings, churches, libraries, theaters, monuments, and bridges including: the Henry Hudson Bridge, Triborough Bridge, and the Manhattan Bridge in New York; Edward Henry Harriman's Arden House in Harriman, N.Y.; the Alfred I. Dupont mansion in Roslyn, N.Y.; the David A. Reed house in Washington, D.C.; the reconstruction of the Grand Army Plaza in New York City; the Memorial Amphitheater for Arlington National Cemetery; and various bicentennial buildings for Yale University. Of note are drawings of the grounds, details of buildings, and furniture for the New York Public Library, 1908-1909.

Collection consists primarily of White's letterpress books and correspondence, with some related bills, receipts, and other ephemera, 1887-1906, relating to his professional and personal matters. Correspondence, 1907, relates to his estate. Correspondents of note include William A. Boring, Richard Morris Hunt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Louis C. Tiffany, John La Farge, Charles McKim, Frederick Law Olmsted, Whitney Warren, Stefano Bardini, Bessie White, William Merritt Chase, William Robert Ware, Kenyon Cox, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Percy Baker, Cass Gilbert, Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent, John Wanamaker, Carrère & Hastings, Thomas Dewing, James McNeill Whistler, Lawrence White, Richard White, and other architects, artists, contractors, suppliers, clients, friends, and family members. One letter book contains letters, 1922, by White's son Lawrence Grant White. Also included are White's architectural drawings for houses he built for himself at St. James, Long Island, 1892-1904, and 121 East 21st Street, New York, undated; miscellaneous drawings; and a few architectural drawings by Lawrence Grant White, and drafts of his translation of Dante's DIVINE COMEDY.