The collection contains 46 postcard-size, black and white photographs of 33 people, including two self-portraits, taken and printed by Van Vechten primarily during the 1930s to 1940s. His subjects in this collection cover a wide range of celebrities in the theatrical and literary world, including ballet dancers, actors and actresses of stage and screen (some in costume), singers, musicians, authors, and poets--for example, Marian Anderson, Pearl Bailey, Sir John Gielgud, Hugh Laing, Sinclair Lewis, Norman Mailer, Clifford Odets, Jerome Robbins, Artur Rubinstein, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Lin Yutang. Also present are two photographs (1923, 1930) of Van Vechten taken by the New York photographer Nickolas Muray.

An addition consists of 21 mounted images (8" x 10") of musicians, writers, entertainers, and actors (on stage and screen)--many of them well-known Black performers--which are identifed and dated on the verso. Included are Earl Jones in the Langston Hughes play Don't You Want to be Free?, Vincent Price in Angel Street, Pearl Bailey in St. Louis Woman, and Ethel Waters in Mamba's Daughters.