This collection consists mainly of a scrapbook and loose photographs from the estate of John Clifford Cowles. The scrapbook was not compiled by Cowles himself, but by a woman named Mary L. Bennett, who purchased some of his papers and photographs after his death in 1951. In a note at the end of the volume, Bennett recounts that after purchasing some photographs from the Cowles estate at a local store, she went to his former house and rescued more documents and photographs from destruction, including the manuscript of a fictionalized memoir. The scrapbook she assembled from Cowles' original materials includes photographs, prints, newspaper clippings, typescripts, and other material like pressed eucalyptus leaves. Many passages from the memoir are pasted into the album and even more are transcribed in Bennett's hand; it is unclear if they are assembled here in the correct order or if all of the passages come from the same work by Cowles. The loose photographs largely document Cowles work as a photographer for hire in Montana and elsewhere in the west and include images of mining operations.