The Patricia DuBose Duncan collection represents Duncan's body of work chiefly from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, during years in which she was a leading advocate for preservation of the nation's tallgrass prairies and committed her work as a photographer to that cause. The majority of the collection consists of Duncan's photographic images in more than 12,000 color slides, over 500 prints, and many negatives.

Duncan's prairie images contain numerous images of the Kansas Flint Hills and the Konza Prairie in various seasons, including many aerial views. Predominating in these Kansas images are the prairies of Chase and Johnson Counties, Kansas. Duncan's images of prairies in other states include South Dakota's Samuel H. Ordway Memorial Prairie, Missouri's Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska's Willa Cather Memorial Prairie, Houston's Armand Bayou Nature Center, Oklahoma's Barnard Ranch, and prairies in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Iowa.

Duncan's subjects include prairie flowers and grasses, birds, insects and reptiles, mammals (particularly bison and coyotes), early Kansas architecture, historic sites, Fort Leavenworth, Native Americans (Haskell University events, Chief White Cloud descendants, and reproductions of 19th century photographs of Native Americans), auctions, rodeos, cattle drives, parades, Kansas City architecture and events, the Kansas City Royals baseball team, activities of Save the Tallgrass Prairie, Inc., grain elevators and wheat harvests, the Agricultural Hall of Fame, prairie skies (clouds, sunrises, sunsets), reflections of human impact on the prairies, and Kansans (settlers, ranchers, townspeople), including many images of artist Gordon Parks during his 1979 photography tour of the Kansas Flint Hills. Kansas communities whose architecture, people, and events are prominently represented include White Cloud, Alma, Atchison, Cottonwood Falls, Strong City, Council Grove, Elmdale, Fort Scott, Leavenworth, Baldwin City, Wichita's "Cowtown," Greater Kansas City, and Shawnee.

The collection's paper files date chiefly from 1970 to 1985 and include biographical sketches of Duncan in newspapers and journals; her general correspondence files, including a small quantity of family correspondence; Duncan book and article manuscripts; Duncan's published articles in journals and books; other journal articles and works which feature her photographs; correspondence and publicity related to Duncan's exhibitions, photomurals, speeches, slide presentations, radio and television appearances, and awards; correspondence regarding her consulting; her grant applications and financial records of receipts; her subject files, including many travel files and notes; and correspondence and records from Duncan's organizational memberships (including substantial correspondence and activity records of Save the Tallgrass Prairies and other organizations which championed establishment of a Tallgrass Prairie National Park).

Duncan's papers are arranged in 13 series. Folder arrangement within each series is chiefly alphabetical (by book title, article title, exhibit title, name of organization, subject, etc.) Folder content is chronological. Several oversize items, such as book and exhibition posters and newspaper editions, have been physically separated from the rest of the collection and are located at RH MS R155. Photographic material is organized by format (slides, negatives, and prints) and further arranged topically within each format. Oversize photographic materials are located at RH MS-P 535(f) and RH MS-P 535(ff). Audiovisual materials, including both audio cassettes and reel to reel tapes, are located at RH Tape 30 and RH Cassette Tape 27.