The collection consists primarily of letters and autographs of authors, poets, critics, politicians, clergy, musicians, scientists, and other prominent personlities, as well as letters of friends and family, collected by Frances Bragdon West. The material includes complete letters on a wide variety of subjects, as well as autographs clipped from letters. Included are the autographs of Eleanor Hallowell-Abbott, Rex Beach, Ellis Parker Butler, Mary Hartwell Catherwood, William E. Curtis, Booker T. Washington (and his endorsement on a canceled bank check), Bernard Faÿ, William Channing Gannett, Leopold Godowski (with his photograph), Edward E. Hale, Eliza Calvert Hall, Elbert Hubbard, Henrik Ibsen, Samuel Ellsworth Kiser, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Lucy Rider Meyer, Emily Huntington Miller, Helena Modjeska, Wilbur D. Nesbit, Thomas Nelson Page, Ignace Jan Paderewski, Frances F. Cleveland Preston, Howard Pyle, Ira Remsen, Frederick A. Stock, Lorado Taft, U.S. President William Taft, and Ida M. Tarbell. Also included are two letters of Frances E. Willard, the women's suffragist.

Additionally, there is an autograph album, bearing the ownership signature of Sarah Frances Bragdon, that contains signatures written directly on the blank pages or clipped autographs that are pasted in. It is covered in a calf binding.