The papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts, documents, original art works, bibliographic notes and material on exhibitions. There are letters from Aleksandr Benois, Mikhail Chekhov, Fedor Komissarzhevskiĭ, Georgiĭ Lukomskiĭ, Nikolaĭ Medtner, Vladimir Nabokov and Aleksandra Tolstai︠a︡, and one letter each from Ivan Bunin, Mikhail Fokin, Tyrone Guthrie, Sok Hurok and Serge Kusevit︠s︡kiĭ. The manuscripts include essays by Dobuzhinskiĭ on such topics as the Mir Iskusstva group, Pushkin's illustrations, Aleksandr Blok, Kuzḿa Petrov-Vodkin and Josʹe-Maria Sert. There are original art works (pen and ink, goache, etc.) relating to his artistic and theatrical productions. Also included are photographs of Russian scenes, apparently from before World War I.

The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, subject files and printed material. The correspondence is primarily from the 1920s and includes letters from G. E. Lv́ov and S. P. Mel'gunov and one or two items each from M. A. Aldanov, I. A. Bunin, N. V. Chaikovskii, A. L. Tolstaiia, V. F. Zeeler and others. The manuscripts are primarily in the form of notes in Polner's hand and include Polner's diary from the years 1919-1925. The documents belong to Tikhon Polner's brother, Sergei, and deal with the latter's expulsion from the USSR in 1921. There is extensive material in the subject files on the writings of Lev Tolstoĭ, including typescript copies of several Tolstoi manuscripts and clippings of the reviews of Polner's book on Tolstoi. Also included is a photograph of A. I. Herzen from the 1850s.