The collection contains the personal papers of Allan Marquand--including manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, miscellaneous material, and printed matter--reflecting his career in the art world, especially as an expert and cataloguer of the works of the Robbia family. Included are manuscripts for Decoration of the Ceppo Hospital at Pistoia (1902), Della Robbias in America (1912), "Some Works by Donatello in America" (1913), and Strzygowski and His Theory of Early Christian Art (1910). There is also material dating from his earlier years as a student when his interests were in the field of theology and philosophy, specifically, logic.

The papers as a whole contain material for historians of Princetoniana, for there is material both direct and tangential which deals with the life of Marquand the student, founder of the Department of Art and Archaeology, chairman of the department, director of the art museum, and founder of the library that was later named for him. Related material includes the manuscript for "Painting by Hieronymus Bosch in the Princeton Art Museum." Marquand's interests extended into the greater Princeton community, and the collection chronicles the history of the Princeton Battle Monument, culminating in its dedication in 1922.

Included in the collection are the papers of Eleanor Cross Marquand, wife of Allan Marquand and an authority in her own right on the identification of plant symbolism in art. Many of the notes, manuscripts, photographs, and slides she used for her articles and speeches can be found here. There are also papers of Marquand's father, Henry Gurdon Marquand, one of the founders and original benefactors of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.