The collection consists of more than 10,000 prints mounted into nineteen scrapbooks and loose pages. While a small portion of the prints depicts architecture and the decorative arts, the bulk of the collection centers on costume of the mid to late 1800s and the early 1900s. The majority of the prints depict women's clothing, although men's and children's clothing of the early 1900s is also included. Prints include engravings, lithographs and half-tone photographs, some hand-colored.

The prints in the collection were originally published in American and French pictorial magazines, including The Delineator (May 1898); Fashions: An Illustrated Monthly Journal (October 1902); Ladies Home Journal (July 1892); pages from Gazelle du Bon Ton (1913), Godey's Lady's Book magazine (1848-1952)), Graham's magazine (1840s), Ladies Companion (1840s), Les Modes Parisiennes (1820-1847, 1864), and Un Siecle de Modes Feminines (1894). Other materials pasted into the scrapbooks appear to be advertising materials published by French firms, particularly Daydou Fils.

The scrapbooks were likely assembled by early Parsons The New School for Design administrators or librarians as a reference for students studying costume design. They are particularly useful for the study of fashion design and merchandising history, lifestyle marketing, and the development of commercial illustration and early fashion photography.