The earliest letters in the collection are written to Elizabeth "Bess" McLean Crowder (1884-1964) from relatives in Pennsylvania, as well as from Bouldin Crowder (1879-1067) prior to their marriage, and afterwards while he was employed by the Internal Revenue Service and living in Alexandria, Virginia. There are also letters from her sister Annie Belle McLean (b. 1889) while she was a student at the State Normal School in Farmville, Virginia. The correspondence from 1925-1935 consists of letters between Bess and Bouldin Crowder and their daughters Elizabeth Bouldin Crowder (1908-1998), while she was attending the North Carolina College for Women in Greensboro, and Eleanor Marian Crowder (1911-1995), while was a student at The College of William and Mary. There are numerous letters written to Elizabeth and Eleanor from friends who were attending other schools, including Duke University, Hampden-Sydney College, Wake Forest University, Queens Chicora College, Danville Military Institute, and Randolph-Macon College. The majority of the post-1935 correspondence is to and from Elizabeth (Crowder) Vaill Harlow while she was living in Winsted, Connecticut and Framingham Centre, Massachusetts.

Subjects covered in the letters include family news, health, births, marriages, and deaths, courtship, student life, including grades, classes, vacations, roomates and other classmates, and social life, including attending movies, concerts, dances, plays, and other events. There is a good deal of correspondence relating to Elizabeth (Crowder) Vaille Harlow's work as a radiological technician and microbiologist in various hospitals and laboratories in Connecticut, New York and Virginia, and later as a real estate broker in Framingham Centre, Massachussetts.

The subject files contain a variety of materials, including accounts and receipts, calling cards, church bulletins, clippings, diaries, estate papers of Alma Bouldin, and Ennis and Robert Puryear, greeting cards, insurance papers, invitations, photographs, programs, school exercises, notes, and examinations, tax records, papers relating to property owned in Vienna, Virginia, and other items.

Crowder Brothers was a retail clothing and general store owned and operated by Bouldin Crowder and John Nelson Crowder (1877-1944), located in downtown Clarksville, Virignia. The records cover the period 1912 to 1954, and include accounts and receipts, a bank book, business and trade cards, correspondence (mostly regarding accounts, orders, and notes past due), insurance papers, leases, promissory notes, sales literature, and tax records. There also various ledgers containing store inventories, purchases, sales, expense accounts, materials and supplies, and payrolls.

The microbiology files relate to Elizabeth (Crowder) Vaill's work as a teacher and researcher with the Connecticut Department of Health. They include class notes, research, and lectures, correspondence (mainly relating to applications for employment in various laboratories in New York), forms, licenses, publications, and reports.

The real estate broker files detail Elizabeth (Crowder) Vaill Harlow's work with the firm Harold C. Wiswall Real Estate in Wellesley Hills, Massachussetts. She was the company's representative in the Framingham Centre area. This series contains client files, classified ads, commissions, correspondence, deeds and agreements, photographs, plats, and property listings.

There are two boxes of publications relating to conservation and horticulture, religion, and education.

There is one box of newspapers, mostly from colleges and universities, including the North Carolina College for Women.