Presented to the University of Kansas by its collector, Robert L. Gilbert, the collection affords a unique resource for the study of magazine publishing. Concentrating on the journals published in the United States in the 20th century, although it does include a few earlier magazines, the hundreds of first issues in the collection provide an uncommon view of periodical publishing, from the pulps and house organs to little magazines and learned journals.

Topics and areas of focus for the magazines, newspapers, and literary journals found in the collection include home hobbies and do-it-yourself projects, sports and athletics, photography, politics, tourism and boosterism, genre fiction and comics, gossip and social news, philately, periodicals published by or on behalf of prisoners, scholarship, puzzles, movies, radio, television shows, business, marketing and communications, men's/women's/children or youth's magazines, investments and banking, astrology, news and current affairs, etc. Several items were produced locally in Kansas communities, such as Lawrence or Manhattan; others have a national scope or focus on other geographic areas of the United States. A small number of items come from other countries, including Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and New Zealand, India, and various Middle Eastern and Latin American countries.

Item titles in the finding aid include the magazine title; publication location and publisher information when known; and date of issue. Other information, such as if an item has been inscribed, is noted whenever possible. All items are Volume 1 number 1 for an issue unless otherwise indicated in the finding aid. Information in this finding aid was transcribed from catalog cards, rather than from the pieces themselves, so errors may have been transcribed as well.