Consists of two disbound albums containing 1,025 mounted albumen photographs of North American Indians, including portraits of delegates to Washington, D.C.; expedition photographs; and early Western studio portraits. Also included are photographs of ruins in the American Southwest and Mexico, of Southwestern Indian pottery and implements, and of models of Southwestern ruins. Most of the photographs in the albums are described in William Henry Jackson's Descriptive Catalogue of the Photographs of North American Indians (1877). Manuscript numbering, possibly in Jackson's own hand, matches enumeration in a unique copy of the catalogue at Princeton University. Pages from the DCPNAI are pasted on leaves at the beginning of each volume.

Item-level descriptions that end with the initials PRF were dated or otherwise reviewed by Paula R. Fleming, author of The Shindler Catalogue (Smithsonian 2003) and a photograph specialist familiar with the original negatives.

This collection is included in the Princeton University Digital Library.

Complete list of known photographers: C. M. (Charles Milton) Bell, Mathew B. Brady, Charles William Carter, Savage & Ottinger, W. G. (William Gunnison) Chamberlain, Désiré Charnay, Thomas M. (Thomas Martin) Easterly, Edric L. Eaton, John H. Fitzgibbon, T. M. Galey, Alexander Gardner, John K. Hillers, J. D. Hutton, J. Gurney & Son, Jackson Brothers (Omaha, Neb.), William Henry Jackson, James E. McClees Studio, N. Brown & Son, Savage & Ottinger, A. Zeno (Antonio Zeno) Shindler, C. S. Stobie, Ulke Brothers, Orloff R. Westmann, Joel E. (Joel Emmons) Whitney.