The collection contains thirty-five oral history interview transcripts, photographs, a VHS videotape, and a variety of printed ephemera, including newspaper clippings, fliers, handouts, programs, business cards, brochures, booklets and restaurant menus. It is arranged thematically into four series: 1) Transcripts, 1988-1989, 2) Puerto Rican Community, 1973-1991, 3) Other Hispanic Communities, 1950-1992, and 4) Photographs.

John D. Morrell, assistant librarian at the Long Island Historical Society (now called the Brooklyn Historical Society) donated over 2,000 black and white and color negatives and prints to the Photography Collection. The images are indexed at the item level by address, street names, and/or neighborhood sometimes including proper names of businesses or institutions.

The collection consists of the personal and business papers of Richetta Randolph Wallace (1884-circa 1971), an African-American woman having a longstanding engagement with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem (New York City), African-American literary and arts culture, and matters of race relations, racial justice and civil rights. Documents include correspondence, pamphlets and other published print matter, event programs and other ephemera, photographs, receipts, manuscripts, and newspaper clippings. Commonly known by her maiden name, Randolph was office manager for the NAACP until the mid-1940s and personal secretary to Mary White Ovington and James Weldon Johnson. The collection includes correspondence with Ovington and Johnson as well as other NAACP principals. including Walter White, William Pickens, and others. The collection includes a full typescript draft of Johnson's Black Manhattan, with notes, and a galley proof (1930) of the book. Much of the collection consists of print matter, which centers on matters of race in the United States, including discrimination, lynching, justice (or injustice), and civil rights. Other print matter includes programs, sermons, church newsletters, and other materials, principally concerning Mt. Olivet Baptist Church. Correspondence documents Randolph's activities on behalf of Mt. Olivet over the years. There are a small number of photographs in the collection, including those of Randolph, of Johnson and his wife in Great Barrington (1929), of Ovington, and stock images of NAACP principals, among others.

The Teunis G. Bergen and Bergen family collection comprises the papers of Teunis G. Bergen (1806-1881), as well as the papers of other Bergen family and extended family members. Materials in the collection span the years 1639 to 1893, and primarily document Bergen's role as a major civic and community figure in Brooklyn, as well as his family's history. In addition to his work as a farmer and surveyor, Teunis G. Bergen served on the Kings County Board of Supervisors as Supervisor of New Utrecht, NY, and in 1864, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat to the Thirty-ninth Congress. He was also known for his expertise in genealogy and local history, and published several articles and books on these topics. Highlights of the collection include maps, surveys, and map tracings of various Brooklyn locales drafted by Bergen; extensive materials pertaining to Bergen's research and publishing on local history and genealogy; and research materials on Bergen family genealogy.