Collection depicts Stanford University buildings, grounds, and people; subjects include athletics and athletic facilities, student amusements, the cactus garden, old chemistry building, dormitories, fraternity and sorority houses, views of the Quad and Inner Quad, Lake Lagunita, libraries, Stanford mausoleum, Memorial Arch, Memorial Church, museum, the Palo Alto tree, university workers (primarily images of horse-drawn wagons), David Starr Jordan, Domenico Grosso ("the Stanford hermit"), and the presidential installation of John C. Branner. A number of items depict damage to buildings from the 1906 earthquake. There are also a few items depicting Palo Alto and surrounding communities.

Stanford subjects, ca. 1900-1905, include athletics, the stadium, Quad views, two groups of male students, and earthquake damage (1905) to the gymnasium, church, and library. There is a series of Lawrence & Houseworth stereographs of hydraulic mining in California, ca. 1865, with two scenic views of California. There is a series of San Diego views by Keystone View Company, including several of submarines in the Bay, ca. 1920. Miscellaneous views include snow in Sacramento 1873 and one view labeled New York City but possibly of San Francisco.

The maps in this collection pertain to the University campus, to other lands owned by Jane and Leland Stanford or the University, and to adjacent communities. Included are maps of the Palo Alto Stock Farm, the land in Santa Clara County that Leland and Jane Stanford purchased as a country home and trotting horse farm which later became the campus of Stanford University; plans for the proposed campus by F. L. Olmsted & Company; miscellaneous campus maps for planting schemes, location of the Peninsular Railway line on campus, plans for Junipero Serra Boulevard, and housing subdivisions; maps of adjacent communities of Mayfield, Woodside, Palo Alto, and Menlo Park along with other subjects such as San Francisquito Creek, Searsville Lake, and Greystone Quarry. There are also three map books: a small volume concerning assorted lands owned by the Stanfords, c. 1869-1903; a block book for the campus, 1901-1903; and insurance maps for the campus, 1917.