The bulk of this collection consists of Anna Johnson's diaries. There is one diary from before her marriage to Floyd Johnson but after they had stated courting each other; the rest all date from 1920 to 1970, with some gap years. Most years Johnson was diligent about writing daily or nearly daily; other years there are extensive gaps in her recordkeeping.

Topics generally covered by Johnson include the weather; comings and goings of immediate and extended family and friends; attending Sunday School, church, and other religious activities; yard work, house chores, and bookkeeping for the family businesses; holidays; family and community events, including births, marriages, deaths, and funerals; momentous or unusual events, such as a tornado in Columbus in March 1938 and the June 8, 1966 tornadoes in Topeka and elsewhere in Kansas; day trips and other short trips to Joplin, Springfield, or Kansas City, Missouri or to Oswego, Pittsburg, Topeka, and other towns in Kansas; and national events, such as the death of Calvin Coolidge and significant occasions of World War II. Sometimes she notes household accounting information, such as costs for groceries and other items, or income received.

Johnson frequently notes when she or other family members are ill or feeling poorly, and there are many entries where Johnson notes she could not get out of bed or got dressed but did not feel up to doing chores or leaving the house. Johnson also sometimes describes her emotional concerns and difficulties, notably in 1935 after her mother dies, during World War II while son Moore is stationed overseas and other friends' and family members' sons are in danger, and in 1967 and the following years after her husband Floyd dies.

The diaries are organized chronologically. Materials tipped into a diary, such as notes about guests at teas or dinners; hotel receipts; cards from friends or family, and other items have been left in the volumes where found. There are a handful of travel diaries Johnson kept for extensive vacations in Florida or Colorado, and these are interfiled with the annual diaries.

Also in the collection are three address books; two birthday books in which Johnson also noted other important family events, including marriages and deaths; two school color photographs of Gleason children from 1986 and 1988; and a campaign card for Cecil Coker running for sheriff in an unknown Kansas county.