The collection includes materials in four broad categories: scrapbooks, cor­respondence, photographs and autobiographical materials. The scrapbooks kept by Mrs. Laney, Esther Laney, and Augusta (Laney) Hoeing have a definite, if limited, historical interest. In her scrapbooks dating from 1872 to 1894, Mrs. Laney saved items relating to the deaths and marriages in the Laney and Walbridge families. She also collected obituaries of friends and Rochester notables, as well as items relating to the Rochester park system. All three women collected poems and hu­morous short stories cut out of newspapers and magazines. The two younger women's scrapbooks, dating from 1894 to 1917, also contain reviews of local recitals and theater performances along with newspaper clippings about national events and a few personal keepsakes.

The collection contains a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about the Cottage. Also letters to Mrs. Harper from Julia F. Thompson (superintendent of the Cottage), well-wishers and a few women who had stayed at the Cottage.

The collection includes correspondence, reports, and printed material relating to Folsom's career in business and government. Subjects include creation, passage, and implementation of the Social Security Act of 1935 and amendments to it; unemployment insurance plan of Eastman Kodak Company, 1920's and '30's; Rochester Civic Plan on Unemployment, 1930-34; New York State Advisory Council on Placement and Unemployment Insurance. Also U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on Postwar Economic Policy and Planning (Colmer Committee), dealing with reconstruction in Europe, 1944-46; National Advisory Board on Mobilization Policy, 1950-53; U.S. Treasury Department, with emphasis on taxation and social insurance, 1953-55. Additional subjects are Committee for Economic Development, and its Committee for Improvement of Management in Government, whose report on presidential succession resulted in a constitutional amendment; and other advisory councils, commissions, and conferences. Other material relates to University of Rochester, calendar reform, and higher education in New York State and in the South. There is correspondence with Dwight D. Eisenhower, Kenneth B. Keating, Oveta Culp Hobby, Nelson A. Rockefeller, and Lyndon B. Johnson; a transcript of an interview with Josef Stalin, 1945; and Folsom's scrapbooks and speeches.

The collection consists mainly of 31 boxed scrapbooks of clippings, most titled in Stowell's hand. Scrapbooks in Boxes 1-2 contain correspondence and reviews regarding exhibitions of her work. The scrapbook in Box 30 contains clippings of bookbindings and book covers, a few original photographs of what may be the Nordhoff bindery. The clippings in Box 31 are almost exclusively related to bookbinding with a number of original designs annotated in a hand other than Stowell's, possibly Margaret Sterling's. The collection's second Series, Artwork and photographs 1890-1910, contains photographs of Stowell, original and printed Stowell artwork as well as block prints and photographic reproductions of works by other artists, primarily Harvey Ellis. Stowell and the bookbinder Margaret Sterling may have sold prints like these at their shops, the Masu Co. and the Far East Shop.

The National Organization for Women, Rochester Chapter Records represents local examples of action women organized during the 1970s- 2000s. This collection is divided into four series: Chapter Records, Issue Campaigns, Printed Materials and Women Against a Violent Environment. The Chapter Records include by-laws, board of director meeting minutes, a member survey and issues from the chapter newsletter. Issue Campaigns includes materials related to supporting women's reproductive health rights, welfare, equal rights and pay equity. The third series includes pamphlets and newspaper clippings documenting various issue campaigns associated with the local chapter. The Women Against a Violent Environment series includes meeting minutes and newspaper clippings from this active sub-group of NOW.

The Northaven papers chronicle the history of the organization founded in 1895, from its early insistence upon moral reform and Christian purity to service founded upon modern tenets of social science, practical assistance and advice. The papers, while incomplete, include correspondence, memoranda, budgets, annual reports, scrapbooks, and publicity material. Especially useful to the researcher will be the volumes in box two and an oversize volume containing the constitution, charter, and by-laws of the organization, secretary's minutes of staff and board meetings, and admittance, progress, and case histories of women during and after their stay in the home during the period 1898-1932.

Correspondence, newspapers, pamphlets and scrapbooks of material relating to the career of Thurlow Weed, 1797-1882.

The collection contains memorabilia and photographs, most of which are from 1901 to 1916. Materials include photographs of various graduating classes, Class Day programs, theater programs, Young Women's Christian Association (Y.W.C.A.) booklets and programs, and luncheon and annual banquet booklets. The collection also includes various newspaper articles about the College for Women that relate to topics such as faculty, the basketball team, Commencement, and graduating classes. Some articles are photocopies. The collection also contains scrapbooks created by students. They consist of newspaper articles, programs from various events, and personal mementos. The scrapbooks are no longer bound.

The Vernon Kellogg Penny Papers contains a scrapbook, letters written by Penny, newspaper clippings about his death, photographs, and memorabilia. The correspondence gives one soldier's feelings and experiences during World War I.