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The two items in this collection are a copy of a typescript made by Clifton Paisley from the original holograph diary and a biographical sketch of the author of the diary, Wilbur W. Gramling. The original of the diary, which the donor described as being in "small handwriting and some of it is illegible because the ink has badly faded," was found among the belongings of the late Owen Irvin Gramling Sr. of Tallahassee, founder of O. I. Gramling and Company and nephew of the author. The original has subsequently come into the possession of O. I. Gramling Jr. of Tallahassee.

This collection is comprised of the background files, notes, correspondence, permission, maps, manuscripts, and other materials that were collected or created by Clifton Paisley during the writing of his work, Red Hills of Florida. Included among these items are biographical sources, census data, maps and surveys of the Red Hills region, letters to and from local organizations and persons, newspapers, and interviews. The majority of the collection consists of those materials which actually played a part in the publication of the book. These items include notes, manuscripts, galley proofs, camera ready copies, and photographs mainly dating from the 1970s and 1980s when the book was being compiled and published.

This collection consists of ten Smith family letters, thirty-three receipted invoices, one bill for tuition, and one diary, all dating between 1782-1864. The letters were chiefly among members of the Smith family and confined to family subjects, but several have educational value in that they represent the thinking of that period, the closeness of family, their religious nature, and in one case a letter by a young lady who moved from Rhode Island to Savannah, Georgia, writes back to her family in Rhode Island and tells of her impressions of the South. One very religious letter by James W. Smith of Thomasville, Georgia, dated 1864, to his uncle, Mr. Remington Smith of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, acknowledges a letter to his father which arrived a week before "his demise."