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 Hart Collection includes samples of books and materials relating to the printing of books by the Leo Hart Printing Company and its successors. The material includes advertisements, information concerning the graphic arts, business papers, items relating to the development and activities of the Hart Company and its personnel, and personal papers of the Leo Hart family. Also included are some papers of Horace Hart, the elder son of Leo, from his years of service in the Printing and Publishing Industries Division of the U. S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C

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 Mary E. Laird Papers are comprised on two series: Personal Papers and Career Materials. The series, Personal Papers consist of correspondence between Laird and a fellow nurse and former colleague, Mary Keith. Included in Career Materials are documents related to the formation of the Rochester Public Health Nursing Association, her involvement and connection with the Rochester Female Charitable Society, Laird's service in France, photographs of co-workers and newspaper clippings.

The Max Lowenthal & Sons Inc. Papers contain financial and tax papers of the Lowenthal Reality and the Max Lowenthal & Sons business, as well as literature regarding the history of Max Lowenthal & Sons Incorporated. The collection includes the New York State and Federal Tax Returns of the corporation in the years 1938-1961 and its financial examinations of 1941-65. In 1968 the company celebrated its Centennial Anniversary. Much coverage of this event was given by the press and the factory. The collection contains several articles regarding this anniversary and its history. There is also information about the opening of a new plant, Lowenthal-Tennessee Incorporated, in 1967 which added a new line of boys sweaters, as well as financial examinations from that time until the company's closing in 1971.

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 Nan Johnson Papers are made up of two series: Campaigns, and Activism and Recognition. The campaign materials relate to Johnson's career in the county legislature and is arranged chronologically, followed by material from Johnson's campaign for county executive. These folders include campaign literature, photographs, newspaper clippings, and correspondence. Material from 95/75, which marked the 75th anniversary of women's suffrage, includes correspondence from organizations requesting use of the event's logo. The remainder of the collection includes material from her other political and social activities.

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.

Finks' papers collected in Rare Books/Special Collections begin with writings by David Finks and then move to documentation of Finks' life and work, including material and some correspondence relating to Catholic Council of Urban Ministries, Campaign for Human Development, and the Downtown (Rochester) Community Forum. Next are Finks' personal records which are combined elements of both a journal and a scrapbook. Contained in binders, they are a combination of journal entries, articles, letters, cards, flyers, programs, and anything else that was meaningful to him. There are a few gaps, but the journals cover from 1985-2007. Finally, the last few boxes are articles and letters regarding people and issues, largely religious, of interest to Finks as well as personal correspondence and photographs.