The papers of Jane L. Stanford pertain largely to the founding and administration of Stanford University, along with her personal and social affairs; included in the papers are correspondence, business records, legal and financial papers, speeches, news clippings, and biographical materials. Correspondence, dating from 1860 to 1905, makes up the larger part of the collection. Most of the correspondence concerns the University. Other topics include personal and social matters, her travels, religious discussions, and her interest in kindergartens. Correspondents include David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford University, Charles Lathrop, Susan B. Anthony, Timothy and May Hopkins, Julia D. Grant (Mrs. Ulysses Grant) and other members of the Grant family, Caroline Harrison (Mrs. Benjamin Harrison), and Andrew D. White. There are also a large number of condolence letters on the death of Leland Stanford and of begging letters.

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.