The collection documents Palmquist’s efforts to identify, collect, preserve, and disseminate information about women in photography.

The Biographical Files series provide excellent name-based access to information about more than thirty thousand individual women involved in photography. The biographical files allow for broad and deep studies of women in photography. Some files are not extensive. They derive from secondary material collected by Palmquist, as well as biographical profiles, professional vitae, advertising items, exhibition announcements, and reviews provided by photographers and historians of photography. The biographical materials also provides limited information for regional photographers, especially in California and the American West, and temporal studies of women photographers. A database https://libapp.library.yale.edu/Palmquist provides individual name access to women with biographical files in this series, as well as any available information regarding their aliases, working locations, life dates, and work dates. 

The Photographic Materials series includes photographic images created by more than two thousand individual women photographers. These materials include vintage photographs created by women photographers, with a majority created before 1910, as well as copy photographs created by Palmquist. The majority of the early vintage photography represents the work of studio photographers and amateur photographers. The collection also includes a significant representation of works by art photographers.

The Publication and Exhibition Research series includes research files compiled by Palmquist to support projects on topics related to women photographers, including his book, With Nature’s Children: Emma B. Freeman (1880-1928): Camera and Brush(1977). The final series consists of the records of Women in Photography International, a nonprofit organization founded in 1981 to serve women photographers, photographic educators, photography students and gallery owners.