The Edwin R. Will collection consists of drawings, papers and photographs related to his professional career as an architect working primarily on the East Coast.

The collection consists of 2,924 photographs and 1,327 drawing reproductions of architectural projects by the firm of John Russell Pope, and later Eggers & Higgins.

This collection is made up of architectural drawings, correspondence, specifications, contracts, invoices, minutes, financial statements, patents, advertisements, photographs, photograph album, test results and reports, memoranda, tile samples, factory order cards, and other materials pertaining to The Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company's projects. The dates of the materials span 1866-1985, with bulk dates 1890-1942. The architectural records include structural, decorative, and acoustical sample products and fragments. Also included are materials added to the files by George Collins (1917-1993), Professor of Art History at Columbia University. Prof. Collins secured the donation of this archive in 1963, and remained its custodian until it was transferred to the Drawings and Archives Collection at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library in 1988. The records document Prof. Collins' research efforts, as well as the Company's projects in forty states (including District of Columbia), four Canadian provinces, and eleven other foreign countries.

Joseph Breck (1885–1933) served The Metropolitan Museum of Art as Assistant Curator in the Department of Decorative Arts (1909-1914), Curator of the Department of Decorative Arts (1917-1933), Assistant Director of the Museum (1917-1933) and Director of The Cloisters (1932-1933). He was closely involved with the original building plans and collection arrangement for The Cloisters. Breck was associated with numerous exhibitions, most notably the Industrial Arts Exhibitions (1918-1929). Breck was responsible for many acquisitions primarily in the field of Decorative Arts. A prolific writer, he is credited with over 200 scholarly papers, pamphlets, publications, and lectures in the fields of textiles, sculpture, furniture, as well as exhibition planning, display techniques and presentation. The Joseph Breck Records document his numerous roles within The Metropolitan Museum of Art and includes correspondence and inter-office memos with museum staff, correspondence with collectors, dealers and lenders of objects; article drafts, reports, pamphlets, catalogs and other published materials.

Approximately 30,000 negatives and prints of buildings primarily on the East Coast, designed by various architects, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Constitution Hall and the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., and several churches and houses, all designed by John Pope Russell; four houses by Electus D. Litchfield; houses and other projects by Grosvenor Atterbury; houses by Peabody, Wilson & Brown; the John Ringling mansion in Sarasota, Florida, among other houses, churches, and office buildings designed by Dwight James Baum; numerous houses and apartment buildings in Miami Beach, Florida, especially those by Russell T. Pancoast and Robert Law Weed; many other houses throughout Florida by architects such as John L. Volk and Treanor and Fatio; and many houses and estates located in suburbs of New York City, particulary Greenwich, Conn., Montclair, N.J., and Mt. Kisco, Locust Valley, Oyster Bay, and South Hampton, N.Y.

The Woodlawn Cemetery archive documents the history of the grounds, mausolea, monuments, and operations of Woodlawn Cemetery, founded in 1863 in The Bronx, New York, and one of the largest in the United States. The collection includes architectural designs records, maps, photographs, correspondence, construction and maintenance records, and other historical documents, spanning 140 years of the cemetery's operations.