This series consists primarily of contact sheets, approximately 3600 black-and-white negatives, and photographic prints in various sizes, portraying notable Princeton professors, visiting scholars, politicians, scientists, artists, and musicians, mostly during the late 1950s through the early 1970s, though some were taken later. While some photographs pertain to assignments for the Princeton Packet, where Steltzer worked, many were shot independently in her studio on Tulane Street, often for passport photos. Steltzer's subjects include such diverse characters as J. Robert Oppenheimer and his family, Adlai Stevenson, Igor Stravinsky, George McGovern, Bob Dylan, Roger Sessions, Richard Rorty, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Benny Goodman, Paul Dirac, and David Lilienthal. Correspondence pertaining to later usage of prints, Xerox copies of prints and contact sheets, and CD-ROMs are also occasionally included with photographic materials. Though 8x10" prints are frequently interleaved with matching contact sheets and negatives, a group of oversize mounted prints, 16x20" and smaller, is also present in this series.

This series consists of contact sheets interleaved with corresponding black-and-white negatives (approximately 4200) and prints of various sizes, along with occasional related correspondence, bound volumes, pamphlets, and mounted prints from Steltzer's early work as a documentary photographer in the 1960s and early 1970s. In contrast to Steltzer's Princeton portraits, photographs in this series document social conditions for migrant workers and other laborers in New Jersey, the Rust Belt, and Chicago, as well as African American communities and civil rights activists in the Deep South. Though primarily made up of documentary work prior to Steltzer's 1972 move to Vancouver, this series also includes two projects from later dates: a 1980 trip to the Philippines, and a group of photographs collected over several decades of Haida weaver Florence Davidson.

This series consists primarily of contact sheets and approximately 2100 black-and-white negatives, along with prints of various sizes, interview notes, and diaries related to Steltzer's travels throughout the American Southwest. Photographs were taken in New Mexico and Arizona between 1969 and 1973, though exhibited as late as 1989. Undated materials were assigned an approximate date based on context. Photographs from this series likely appeared in "The World of the Southwest Indians," an exhibition at the Paterson Free Public Library, April 1-30, 1970, and two German shows in 1980 and 1989 organized by the Society for Threatened Peoples and Survival International. Notable are photographs of J. Robert Oppenheimer's son, Peter, at his ranch, "Perro Caliente," near Cowles, New Mexico, as well as several photographs of Native American Princeton students taken at the Tulane Street studio in 1970. Also notable are photographs and interviews with members of the Hopi people. Steltzer's diaries describe her unique documentary methods and her frequent and often lengthy visits to native communities, where she learned cooking, baking, and other traditional crafts.

This series contains contact sheets, approximately 4500 black-and-white negatives, and prints of various sizes, along with correspondence, research notes, notebooks, and one bound volume for Indian Artists at Work, Steltzer's first book, which was published in 1976. These materials document native carvers, weavers, and other artists throughout British Columbia, showing artists at work in their homes and gathering materials from the local environment. Notes contain interview transcriptions, which were often used as captions for the book, a recurrent feature in Steltzer's published work.

This series contains contact sheets, approximately 3000 black-and-white negatives, and prints of various sizes, along with notes, correspondence, and one bound volume related to the 1979 publication of Coast of Many Faces with Catherine Kerr, which documents the coastal communities of British Columbia. These materials describe the region's native peoples and Canadians of European heritage, as they existed in the 1970s. Local fishing and lumber economies, as well as artistic and cultural practices in small villages along the coast are heavily featured.

This series contains contact sheets, approximately 3900 black-and-white negatives, prints of various sizes, correspondence, notes, clippings, and a bound volume related to Steltzer's work on Haida artists, spanning most of her career from the mid-1970s until 2002. Photographs document various feasts, potlatches, pole-raisings, and dances within the Haida community in Masset and Skidegate, Haida Gwaii (also known as Queen Charlotte Islands). Some materials in this series pertain to the 1984 publication of A Haida Potlatch, which documents a 1981 potlatch hosted by Haida artist Robert Davidson in Masset, Haida Gwaii. Davidson invited Steltzer to photograph his potlatch after working with her on Indian Artists at Work. Notes from interviews with Davidson and other Haida attendees are present. This series also includes materials related to the first chapter of Indian Artists at Work on Haida carvers. Artists appearing frequently in this series include Robert Davidson, Reg Davidson, Florence Davidson, Bill Reid, and Jim Hart.

This series contains contact sheets, approximately 3300 negatives, and prints, mainly black-and-white with a few in color where noted, along with correspondence, pamphlets, and research files pertaining to Haida artist Bill Reid (1920-1998), an accomplished goldsmith, sculptor, carver, and writer working on Granville Island in Vancouver. Reid, a Canadian of mixed Haida and European heritage, is often credited as a major force in the resurgence of Haida art in the late 20th century. Having photographed Reid for Indian Artists at Work, Steltzer later published two versions of a book about Reid's Spirit of Haida Gwaii, a massive bronze sculpture that was installed in front of the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. in 1991. A second bronze casting, patinated in blue-green, was later commissioned for the Vancouver International Airport.

This series consists of contact sheets, approximately 3600 black-and-white negatives, prints of various sizes, typescripts, and a bound volume pertaining to Robert Davidson, an artist from Masset, Haida Gwaii who is considered one of the foremost Haida carvers of the late 20th century. After meeting while Steltzer was working on Indian Artists at Work, Steltzer and Davidson developed a long-standing friendship. Her documentation of Davidson's poles, masks, jewelery, carvings, and potlatches, from the mid-1970s until 2004, provides a unique insight into the technique, community involvement, and philosophy surrounding Davidson's work, as well as into the Haida cultural revival of which he was a part. As children of a generation for whom government attempts at integration suppressed native artistic and cultural activities, Davidson and other Haida artists in the 1970s-2000s are credited with reviving traditional forms, as well as reinterpreting them. Photographs show Davidson at work in his studio, with his family at various events and celebrations, as well as individual pieces of art, which were often photographed over the course of their completion. Includes photographs and early drafts of Robertson's text for Eagle Transforming: The Art of Robert Davidson, published in 1994. As a result of a long working relationship with Steltzer, materials related to Robert Davidson can also be located in Series 4 and Series 6.

This series consists of contact sheets, approximately 1500 black-and-white negatives, prints of various sizes, correspondence, typescripts, a notebook and other research notes, and one bound volume pertaining to Steltzer's trips to Guatemala and Mexico in 1976-1978. Many materials in this series are related to the 1983 publication of Health in the Guatemalan Highlands, documenting the Chimaltenango Development Program's clinic organized by Dr. Carroll Behrhorst, which provided health care and employment for many Cakchikel Indians in the rural highlands regions of Guatemala. According to her notebooks, Steltzer made her first trip to Guatemala in 1976-1977, where she also spent time in Mexico visiting Alfred Bush, then curator of the Princeton Collections of Western Americana and a proponent of this project. Her photographs of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico document these travels.

This series contains contact sheets, approximately 3900 black-and-white negatives, photographic prints of various sizes, notebooks, interview transcriptions, correspondence, typescripts, and a bound volume related to Steltzer's documentation of Inuit communities in Northern Canada and Alaska in 1980-1981. Materials in this series pertain to the publication of both Inuit: The North in Transition (1982), a study of Inuit life throughout the North American Arctic, and Building an Igloo (1981), also referred to in these materials as "The Igloo Book," a children's book published in English, Swedish, Japanese, and Korean. With the help of funds from the government of the Northwest Territories, Steltzer lived with Inuit communities for several months at a time, interviewing and photographing families fishing, hunting, preparing food, making clothing, and engaged in other daily activities. Undated materials were provided a date range based on known travel and publication dates.

This series contains contact sheets, approximately 5700 black-and-white negatives, prints of various sizes, notes, drafts, interview transcriptions, publicity materials, slides, and a bound volume related to The New Americans: Immigrant Life in Southern California, published in 1988. These materials document a diverse group of immigrants and refugees living in Los Angeles from the end of the Vietnam War through the mid-1980s, and the vibrant urban culture surrounding them. Photographs from this series were also exhibited at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1990.

This series consists of contact sheets, approximately 3000 black-and-white negatives, prints, correspondence, research notes, diaries, drafts, and a bound volume pertaining to Steltzer's travels in India from 1991 to 2005. A small quantity of color negatives, prints, and slides are also included where noted. Materials feature rural villages affected by the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada River near Navagam, Gujarat, a development project which has been a subject of controversy in environmental justice since the late 1980s due to its displacement of hundreds of rural villages. Some photographs in this series appear in Sardar Sarovar: The Report of the Independent Review, published in 1992 with Hugh Brody, a social scientist and Resettlement Senior Advisor for the Independent Review. Correspondence suggests that Steltzer intended to publish another book focusing on Medha Patkar, leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan Movement, and other Indian community activists protesting the building of the dam, although it appears this project was never completed. Notable items include letters from Medha Patkar and activists detained in Indian prisons, detailing prison conditions and treatment of protesters by local police.

This series contains contact sheets, approximately 4000 black-and-white negatives, prints of various sizes, a CD-ROM and floppy disk, and a bound volume related to Steltzer's visits to small villages in China in 1995, 1997, 1999, and 2001. Photographs in this series were compiled in Sight and Insight: Life in Lijiang, Baidi, and Yongning, published in 2002, which documented the Naxi and Mosuo people of Yunnan, including wedding and funeral customs.

This series contains contact sheets, approximately 600 black-and-white negatives, 8x10" and 11x14" prints, notebooks, interview transcriptions, travel guides, maps, and clippings from Steltzer's trips to Cuba and Trinidad in 1998 and 1999. Photographs show street culture, dancing, and live music in Havana, Guanabacoa, Regla, and Pinar del Río. Although images from this series never culminated in a published book, interview transcriptions and research notes imply that a book project was in the works. Materials suggest that Steltzer made two trips to Cuba in January of 1998 and 1999. Some materials were labeled with only the month and date, in which case, notebooks were used to assign years to undated materials. When the year was unclear, 1998-1999 was supplied as a date range.