Over 70% of the materials in the collection are Women's Clothing and Accessories, including dresses, separates, undergarments, coats, aprons, hats, shoes, purses, parasols, gloves, custom jewelries, fans, and other miscellaneous accessories.  Although the majority of women's dresses date from the 1930s and later, garments of the earlier eras are well represented.  Included in the Collection are over 250 garments that date between 1830s and 1900s, 70-plus dresses from the 1900s to 1910s, 90-plus from the 1910s, nearly 100 lingerie dresses of the early 1900s, and over 250 from the 1920s.  Most significant among these earlier garments are 60-plus frontier and homestead dresses.   Almost all were made of cotton calicos and were part of the everyday wardrobe of the frontier women; these oftentimes very worn wrappers allow us a glimpse into the pioneer woman's world and her life on the frontier. 
 
The Women's Wedding Gown Collection totals over 150 gowns with the oldest dated from 1830 and the latest ones from the early 1980s.  This collection is the best documented, generally including information on the bride, groom, and date and place of the wedding.  Documents such as marriage certificates, wedding announcements, newspaper clippings, and wedding pictures are often donated as well.  Sometimes the trousseaus, grooms' suits, attendants' and matron-of-honors' clothing, and other accessories were also part of the donations.  Taken as a whole, these materials provide an excellent source of material evidence about the social, economic, and cultural circumstances of their times.