The collection is the result of research conducted by Dr. Alixa Naff relating to the study of the early Arab immigrant experience in the United States from about 1880-World War II. The study began with oral history interviews in 1962 and became a major project in 1980 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It documents the assimilation of Arabic speaking immigrants in the United States.

The Everett H. Bickley Collection, 1919-1980, documents the inventions of Everett Huckel Bickley, most known for his electric sorting machine used to automate the process of sorting beans by use of a photoelectric cell. The collection consists of patents, drawings, photographs, correspondence, and artifacts designed by Bickley. The collection spans a considerable portion of the twentieth century and is of value to those researchers interested in product development, the patent application process, product marketing and promotion, World War II innovation, and the daily operation of a small, privately-owned industry.

The papers of New York painter and muralist George Biddle (1885-1973), measure 0.76 linear feet and date from circa 1910-1970. The collection includes a certificate signed by President Harry Truman, transcripts of Biddle's diaries, a manuscript of a memoir about meeting President Franklin Roosevelt, three letters from William Hunt Diederich's daughter, transcripts of letters from Bernard Berenson, sketches and mural studies, and two glass plate negatives.

The collection consists of black-and-white, sepia-toned and color photographs documenting the lives of African Americans from about the 1920s to the 1980s. It is contained in four albums.

The papers of the painter Cecilia Beaux measure 3.3 linear feet and date from 1863 to 1968. Papers document her education, career and personal life through family and professional correspondence, twelve diaries, lectures, essays, poems, notes, clippings, catalogs, pamphlets, exhibition records, business records, photographs, certificates, diplomas, and artifacts.

The records of San Francisco Focus Gallery measure 11.8 linear feet and date from 1963-1987. The bulk of the collection consists of exhibition files. There are also artists files, sales information, correspondence, and scattered records of the gallery's companion bookshop.

The papers of abstract expressionist painter and playwright Paul Jenkins measure 11.1 linear feet and date from circa 1915 to 2010. Jenkins's career in New York and Paris is documented through biographical material, family papers, correspondence, writings, personal business records, printed material, photographs of Jenkins in his studio and at various events, and original artwork by Jenkins and others.

The papers of painter, political activist, and educator Leon Golub are dated 1930s-2009 and measure 16.5 linear feet and 4.13 GB. His career as a painter and educator – and, to a far lesser extent, his personal interests and activities – are documented by correspondence, interviews, writings by Golub and other authors, subject files, printed and digital material, and audiovisual recordings. Also included are biographical materials, personal business records, and photographs of Leon Golub and wife Nancy Spero. Posthumously dated items are mostly condolence letters, obituaries, printed material, and inventories of his work.

The papers of Xavier Gonzalez, a New York and Massachusetts painter, sculptor, educator, and owner of the Wellfleet Art Gallery, measure 14.1 linear feet and date from 1908 to 1997. The collection consists of biographical materials, correspondence, writings, project files, business records, printed materials, scrapbooks, photographs, and artwork.

The records of Henri Gallery, a Washington, D.C. gallery that showed painters from the Washington Color School and emerging artists, measure 55.4 linear feet and date from circa early 1900s, 1940 to 1996, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1957 to 1995. The gallery's relationship with artists and clients, exhibitions, sales, and other business is documented in alphabetical files containing a wide variety of materials, including correspondence, sales records, printed materials, photographs, slides, and motion picture film. Additional correspondence, newspaper clippings, 114 exhibition posters, scattered drawings, illustrated cards, and photographic materials are also found in the collection.