The photographs in the collection date from 1944, 1946, 1951-1955, 1959-1966, 1968, 1972, and 1975 and are arranged in a single series (Photographic Materials) with three subseries (Events, People, and Nonhuman Subjects). The People subseries is further divided into seven subsections: Children, Families, Groups, Men, Men and Women, Organizations, and Women.

Where possible, identification has been given. Unidentified photographs have been described in-depth on their housing. Where a subject appears in photographs across multiple categories, an effort has been made to provide cross reference information; this information is included below as "See also" notes.

Photograph arrangement is chiefly alphabetical by name or, if name is unavailable, by subject; where arrangement is by names, the last name is used where possible. Photograph size given is in inches. Unless noted with a "b/w" (to indicate black and white), images are in color. The term "image" has been used to indicate photographs with differing subjects (e.g. 2 images include a photo of subject A and one of subject B). The term "copies" has been used to indicate multiple prints of the same image.