This collection of speeches, correspondence, pamphlets, clippings, audiovisual material, and miscellaneous memorabilia was collected by historian Donald R. McCoy as a result of his research for the biography Landon of Kansas.

The James Ashford Manka papers are concerned primarily with Manka's peripheral activities, including politics and religion. The collection has been arranged by subject. File folders with this subject arrangement were maintained by Manka and fall into five categories and form a rough chronology of Manka's activities.