This series includes family correspondence to and from George P. Cather. There are several letters from Kyd Clutter, who wrote from Montana. There is a copy of a telegram regarding G.P. Cather's funeral held in Red Cloud in 1921. The farm records included in this series particularly relate to Cather's mortgages and farm records on expenses and receipts. The correspondence includes information on wool prices and advertisement letters. Many items reflect Cather's duties in serving public office, including estate and land assessment records for Webster County. Among the public office records are receipts for United States government surplus clothing for the "destitute." Also, documents show that orders for clothing and other items were purchased from the Miner Brothers General Store and billed to Webster County. The series also includes correspondence from the Nebraska Republican party and the Webster County Republican party and other political items such as Republican, Democratic, and Prohibition voting tickets.

This series includes one letter written to Franc Smith Cather, from her daughter Blanche, and two postcards. There is an annual catalog from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary from 1874-1875 and a form letter to former pupils of the seminary.

This series contains two letters written to G.P. Cather by his father in January 1908. The letters discuss G.P.'s decision to enlist in the U. S. Navy and detail his father's hopes that he could help G.P. return home.

This series includes the research that George P. Cather did on the Cather family genealogy. This work also interested his daughter Blanche and her son George Cather Ray. Correspondence and notes from both Blanche and her father are included in this series. The series includes letters that George P. Cather wrote to numerous cousins and other extended family members to elicit information about their connections to the Cather family. A good many of these letters were "returned to sender." Many of them have the same text with slight variations depending on the recepient of the letter.

The series includes correspondence and items relating to Blanche Cather Ray and her husband W. W. Ray. Of note is an autograph book of Blanche Cather Ray's with an inscription from Willa Cather dated July 28, 1893. Included in Blanche's materials are certificates, report cards, and a composition notebook relating to her teaching career. Materials from her husband, W.W. Ray, include correspondence to his mother, Rachel Ray, and an autograph book.

George Cather Ray's materials include records relating to the National Defense Training Program in St. Louis, Missouri, noted as the Naval Training School. The materials include course outlines, lesson plans, daily worksheets, a manual, and examinations for Electrician's Mate Third Class. He trained at the program in St. Louis from December 1941 until March 1942. Additional documents are from training schools in California and Indiana. Ray served on the U.S.S. Banner from 1944-1945 and related materials include his orders, a notebook outlining his responsibilities, and ship rosters.

Also a part of this series are items created by George Cather Ray's daughter, Mary Weddle, which provide information on her family connection to Willa Cather. There are a few items created by Perry Weddle, Mary's husband. A handwritten manuscript of a short story describes his first visit to Lincoln, Nebraska during his college days.

This series includes petitions and land grants from 1791-1813 and a homestead application for John T. Smith, a Cather ancestor. General family materials in this series include invitations, a reunion program, programs for plays, ship and railroad guides, and advertisements. For example, there are numerous promotional calendars from the Walrath and Sherwood Lumber Company. These documents may have been collected by many generations of the family represented in the collection.

This series contains photographs of Willa Cather, and George P. and Franc Cather as well as their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. There are also photographs of extended family and family friends. Of note is a 1903 photograph of Theodore Roosevelt in Grand Island, Nebraska, at the opening of the Carnegie Library, the predecessor to the Grand Island Public Library.