The papers of John Turner Miles date from 1922 to 1976, and are arranged in three series: Diaries, Business Papers and Personal Papers. There are 29 diaries, dating from 1922 to 1959. They are grouped by decade and arranged chronologically by year. All but one of the diaries document J.T. Miles' personal life and business affairs as a mortician. The exception is a 1948 diary of an unidentified woman, most likely Geneva Miles. J.T. Miles' daily diary entries, which usually begin with a brief note about the weather, chronicle his activities in Atchison, the surrounding Kansas communities of Lawrence, Troy, Hiawatha, and also St. Joseph, Missouri. In addition to recording the struggles of an African American small businessman in the mid-1900s, the diaries reveal the names of the deceased whom he embalmed and buried. Three printing blocks are housed with the diaries.

The collection's Business Papers date from 1927 to 1976 and include funeral home documents, promotional material, and newspaper clippings. Personal papers consist of Miles family birth and death records. Subject contents of these series are alphabetical, with chronological subarrangement of items within folders.

The photographs in the John Turner Miles Collection depict J.T. Miles and his daughter Etta Mae Hunter in family, business and civic settings. They are located at RH MS-P 588.

One oversized item, a 1983 wall calendar picturing Etta Mae as a young girl, is located at RH MS Q107.