The collection consists of writings, correspondence, photographs, and other materials documenting the personal and professional affairs of Modernist-era painter Marsden Hartley. Writings contain notes and drafts, autograph and typescript, for numerous writings, chiefly essays. Correspondence is spread out over the many groupings in the collection and features large files of outgoing letters to Norma Berger, Hartley's niece, Carl Sprinchorn, and Adelaide S. Kuntz, as well as incoming letters from artists, writers, cultural figures, and institutions. Correspondents include Hart Crane, Robert McAlmon, Henry Miller, Marianne Moore, Arnold Ronnebeck, Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, Gertrude Stein, Alfred Stieglitz, Carl Van Vechten, William Carlos Williams, and Edmund Wilson. There are also third-party letters between Berger and others concerning Hartley's work. Other materials include photographs, three oil paintings by Hartley, notebooks, and objects.