The collection consists primarily of copies of letters, documents, stories, newspaper articles, reports, tables, and extracts from various sources collected by Auerbach and relating to Mormons and Indians. Included are a brief history of the Mormons; letters and reports regarding official Indian business in the Southwest and Northwest, often sent by the local Indian agent to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs or to local governors; documents found in the Indian Office at Washington, D.C., some of which concern the Mountain Meadows Massacre (Utah) in 1857; accounts of discussions regarding the restoration of refugee Indians to their homes in Indian territory (1883); a copy of a journal kept in 1849 by Isaac Foster en route to Alta, Calif.; a history (1888) of the Nauvoo (Utah) Legion relating an incident of the Black Hawk War; an itinerary of the mail route from Great Salt Lake City to San Francisco (ca. 1850); and a table of distances of the overland daily stage line from Kansas to Utah (1862).

Also present are two volumes of selected items of Utah and Mormon history; typescripts for a reminiscence of pioneering in California, "From Cradle to the Grave," by W. B. Meek and "The Mormons as I Know Them" by Charles Mostyn Owen (1859- ); 17 albumen cartes-de-visite (ca. 1870s) of unidentified persons; photostats of letters by John Wolcott Phelps (1813-1885) written while on a military expedition to Utah in 1857-1859; and a scrapbook (1922) of newspaper clippings about Auerbach and Utah.

The papers contained in this collection are, for the most part, typescripts taken from originals. The last series contains unprocessed material similar to materials included elsewhere in the collection, as well as a writing slate reputed to have been owned by Brigham Young.