The collection consists of works, correspondence, documents, photographs, scrapbooks, juvenilia, and printed matter of Burr (Princeton Class of 1927). The collection contains the typed manuscript (carbon) and photographs for Burr's book Education in New Jersey, 1630-1871 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1942), based on his Ph.D. thesis at Princeton, as well as undergraduate notes and essays, and letters written to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harris L. Burr, during undergraduate (1923-1927) and graduate school years (1928-1932) at Princeton and New York University (1929).

The bulk of the collection consists of letters written to Burr by his father, friends, clergymen, publishers, and libraries, much of it regarding Burr's histories of various parishes and churches in Connecticut and Washington, D.C. The correspondence reflects his interest in religious matters, especially the Episcopal Church, and there are letters concerning his book The Story of the Episcopal Church in the United States (1936). In addition, the collection contains scrapbooks kept by Burr when he was with the Library of Congress, as well as scrapbooks of the state anniversary exhibitions (1945-1948) mounted there, and includes a series of biographies for the "Liberty Ships" of the United States Maritime Commission written by him and others (1942-1944).