This collection is organized geographically by counties in Kansas, alphabetically by county name. Within each county are towns, cities, townships, and any other political boundaries, which are also arranged alphabetically. Images are thereafter classified into broad categories, such as "aerial views" (also known as bird's eye views) or "street scenes," "agriculture," "commerce," "education," "religion," "social customs," etc. Each classification may have sub-categories as needed.

The "Agriculture" category may include grain elevators, ranching, irrigation, and other topics related to farming and raising livestock. The "Commerce" category may include images of banks, garages and gas stations, saloons or soda fountains, restaurants, and other building types and occupations in which money is exchanging hands. The "Industry" category may include images of construction, manufacturing, milling, utilities, and other large-scale industrial works. The "Politics and government" category may include courthouses and city halls, post offices, and the State Capitol. The "Recreation" category may include hunting and fishing for sport, horse racing, gardening, picnics and boating, the rodeo, athletic team portraits, and other images that appear to be related to recreational activities. The "Social customs" category includes parades, fairgrounds, parties, holidays, funerals, monuments and memorials, and other images related to cultural activities. The "Weather and disasters" category includes both weather incidents and manmade disasters, such as building fires.

Images that can be identified as coming from Kansas but that do not have a more specific geographic identification are in a series for Kansas generally; geographic areas or political boundaries that cross multiple counties--such as Fort Riley, the town of Sabetha, or Lake Perry--are also included in this series.

The bulk of the collection is located at RH PH 535. Oversize materials have been physically separated to RH PH 535(f) and RH PH 535(ff) and are described at the end of each relevant series for which there are oversize images. Images located at oversize locations have not typically been classified beyond what county and town they show; most oversize images are mounted prints.