This series contains the cartoons donated to and purchased by the University of Kansas' School of Journalism and later transferred to the Kenneth Spencer Research Library. While almost 500 of the cartoons represented were created by Albert T. Reid, hundreds of other cartoonists and illustrators can be found in the collection, mostly dating from the early-to-mid-20th century. Many of the drawings are original pen and ink drawings.

When creator and/or publisher information is available, this has been included in the description. Titles directly quoted from the cartoons may use language representative of when the items were created. Major syndications with which illustrators worked and which are represented in the collection include King Features Syndicate, United Feature Syndicate, AP Newsfeatures, and McClure Newspaper Syndicate, among others.

Many of the cartoons had been cataloged at a former call number ("CS-[number]" for comic strips, RH Reid for cartoons by Reid, "P-[number]" for political cartoons, for example); this information is also included. Cartoons have been physically separated to aid access and are stored by size.