The collection comprises 29 linear feet of records that document the day-to-day administration of the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery from 1962 to 1991, with additional items predating the founding of the gallery from 1851 to 1961. The collection records artist and client relations, exhibitions, and daily business transactions through artist files, correspondence, printed matter, and photographic material.

The William Trost Richards papers measure 1.8 linear feet and date from 1848-1920. The collection documents Richards' personal life and his career as a landscape and seascape painter. The collection consists of correspondence, writings, business files, printed material, photographs, and other miscellaneous materials.

The papers of New York painter Robert Reid measure 0.9 linear feet and date from circa 1880-circa 1930. The collection provides scattered documentation of Reid's career and family history through a certificate, letters, an essay of family recollections, scrapbooks containing letters, writings, printed material and family photographs, printed material about Reid, and photographs of Reid, his studio, travels, and works of art.

The papers of Ad Reinhardt measure 3.8 linear feet and date from circa 1927 to 1968. The collection documents Reinhardt's career as an abstract painter, cartoonist, and writer through biographical material, correspondence, writings, printed material, scrapbooks, and artwork.

The papers of New York painters and teachers Josef Presser and Presser's wife Agnes Hart measure 4.3 linear feet and date from 1913 to 1980, with the bulk of the material from 1940 to 1980. The collection documents their personal and professional lives as artists and educators and consists of biographical material, business and personal correspondence, teaching files, printed material, and scattered photographs. The collection also includes writings, personal business records, and artwork by Presser.

The papers of lithographer Louis Prang date from 1848 to 1932 and measure 1.2 linear feet. Found within the papers are biographical material, writings, art work, card samples, printed material, and photographs.

The papers of illustrator, xerography artist, filmmaker, and educator Esta Nesbitt measure 10.05 linear feet and date from circa 1942-1981. Found within the papers are biographical material, correspondence, writings, xerography research files, project and exhibition files, and printed material. Much of the collection relates to Nesbitt's xerography art work. Additionally, the collection includes motion picture film and sound recordings related to her film and performance work.

The papers of Chicago art conservator, Louis Pomerantz, measure 34.2 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1988, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1950s-1980s. The papers document two principal aspects of Pomerantz's professional life: his conservation work for institutions and individuals, and the development of his professional expertise as documented through his writings and teachings, his continued conservation training, and his involvement in professional organizations. Files include scattered biographical material, professional correspondence, interviews, writings, project and client files, teaching and reference files, printed material, and photographic material primarily documenting conservation treatments and techniques.

The glass plate negatives of the Provincetown Art Association measure 0.44 linear feet and 0.116 GB and date from 1916 and include images believed to have been taken for A. J. Philpott's August 1916 Boston Globe article entitled "Biggest Art Colony in the World at Provincetown." In addition to the twelve glass plate images of artists at work in Provincetown, including George Elmer Browne and E. Ambrose Webster, the collection includes the original negative box, a circa 2006 photocopy of Philpott's article, and digital copies of the glass plates.

The papers of still life artist John Frederick Peto and his family date from circa 1850 to 1983 and measure 2.1 linear feet. Within the papers are scattered biographical materials, a few letters to and from Peto, and his daughter Helen Peto Smiley's correspondence with galleries, scholars, and others concerning Peto's artwork. Also found are news clippings, exhibition catalogs, and other printed material, photographs and glass plate negatives of Peto, his family, and his artwork, and one small oil sketch fragment. Much of the collection documents the mid-twentieth century renewed interest in Peto's artwork.