Correspondence to and from both Mary and Padraic Colum, organized alphabetically by correspondent's last name. The collection includes a mix of business correspondence relating to contracts, publication deals, royalties, and theatrical productions, as well as family and personal correspondence. Two folders consist of letters from Mary Colum and Padraic Colum to literary and business associates. The correspondence in these folders tends to be more substantive and literary, pertaining to more than just contracts and royalties. There are a few letters from readers or scholars of the Colums' work. Includes also some correspondence of people and organizations evidently connected to the Colums, such as extensive correspondence from the American Irish Association to various public officials and correspondence to Armenian folklorist Leon Herald. Some of this correspondence mentions either Padraic or Mary Colum, but is neither to nor from them. Notable correspondents include Van Wyck Brooks (one letter on the death of Mary Colum), Pearl S. Buck (one letter to Leon Herald), Charles Du Bos (two letters), James Laughlin (one letter to Mary Colum), John Hall Wheelock (twenty-eight letters, mostly to Mary Colum), and Elizabeth Yeats (one letter to Mary Colum).

This series contains a mix of legal and financial documents relating to Padraic Colum, including contracts (official signed and duplicate copies), royalty statements, tax information and tax returns, and personal financial records for Padraic Colum such as invoices and canceled checks. This material is organized chronologically.

Manuscripts and typescripts of reviews and articles by Mary Colum, organized alphabetically by title, if known. Notably includes a near-complete typescript of Colum's autobiography Life and the Dream with marginal corrections and notations. Includes also one bound notebook. Other bound notebooks, including a diary of the year 1901, potentially belonging to Mary Colum (though ownership is unconfirmed) have been placed in Series V, box 10, folder 1. Boxes 16 and 17, oversize, contain three complete or nearly complete sets of galleys for Life and the Dream, as well as fragments of galley copies. Some typescripts of articles that appeared in Forum in 1939 are included with the published articles in Series VIII, box 11, folder 12.

Contains manuscripts and typescripts of works by Padraic Colum, divided into prose (including stories, reviews, other essays, and, notably, partial drafts of Ourselves Alone, Colum's biography of Sinn Fein founder Arthur Griffith), plays, and poetry. The poetry subseries is of particular interest, as it contains both handwritten and typed drafts of poems, showing multiple instantiations of individual poems. Some typed drafts contain handwritten revisions or marginal comments. These materials are organized alphabetically by title, if known, within each category. In the case of poetry, untitled poems are alphabetized based on their first lines. Contains also several bound notebooks and composition books containing original drafts of stories, essays, plays, and poems, which include drafts of Colum's novel The Flying Swans and the play Monasterboise. Much of the material is undated and miscellaneous. These notebooks are organized chronologically based on dates found within the notebooks. Box 18, folder 1 contains one oversize proof of Colum's short story, Jason and the Golden Fleece.

An assorted collection of manuscripts and typescripts (primarily typescripts) not by Mary Colum or Padraic Colum. This includes Colum-related works by other authors, such as reviews, bibliographies, or works of scholarship. A handwritten birthday poem for Padraic Colum by William Jay Smith is also included. Sometimes, the works have been sent to Padraic or Mary Colum. Often, however, the connection to Colum is unclear. This material is organized alphabetically by author, if known. This series also contains bound notebooks and composition books that did not clearly belong to Mary or Padraic Colum. A few owners are identified in the books, but the bulk are unidentified. Several bound record books and one diary for the year 1901 (box 10, folder 1) are suspected to have belonged to Mary Colum, but ownership cannot be confirmed.

Contains portrait photographs and snap shots of both Padraic and Mary Colum, as well as a folder of unidentified or non-Colum photographs, some of which are inscribed to either Padraic or Mary Colum. The bulk of the Padraic Colum snap shots were taken by his nephew Emmet Green and cover the period from 1970 to 1971. Materials in box 18 are oversize.

Contains other personal papers of Padraic and Mary Colum, including Mary Colum's passport, Padraic Colum's address book, biographical sketches (most of which were prepared for different editions of Who's Who in America), and funeral memorials.

Contains various types of ephemera relating to Padraic and/or Mary Colum, most notably articles, broadsides, and programs from productions of plays by Padraic Colum. Material relating to films about Padraic Colum, a museum exhibition on Colum's life and work, and a class on Colum taught at Fordham University in 1978 and 1979 are also included. Colum reportedly was in the habit of tearing pages, or even whole articles, from books and magazines, which may explain the inclusion of book fragments. Materials in box 18 are oversize. Box 19 contains medals, plaques, and other odd format materials.

Includes broadsides, other literary materials, and article clippings not directly associated with Padraic or Mary Colum, much of it nonetheless pertaining to Irish literature or culture more broadly. Padraic Colum reportedly was in the habit of tearing pages from books, which may explain the inclusion of some book fragments. Otherwise, reasons for inclusion among Colum papers are often unclear, and some of the material may have instead been collected by Emmet Greene, the nephew of Padraic and Mary Colum and executor of Padraic Colum's literary estate after 1972. Anti-semitic pamphlets were found within original boxes of Colum materials, and it is unclear if they were collected by Colum or Green or if they were only used as packing material in the boxes. Materials in box 18 are oversize.

Correspondence, legal documents, and financial documents pertaining to publication of, copyright permissions for, and royalties from works of Padraic and Mary Colum following Padraic Colum's death in January 1972. While most correspondence is business-related, some is from scholars of Colum's work and pertains to their scholarship. This series also includes personal papers, financial records, and photographs of Emmet Greene, nephew of Mary and Padraic Colum and executor of Padraic Colum's estate; and Freda Magnus, a nurse who assisted Greene after a stroke in 1973 until her death in 1975. These papers cover the 1920s-1980s. Greene served in the War Shipping Administration and Magnus served in the Royal Norwegian Air Force (stationed in Ontario, Canada) during World War II, and some of their papers pertain to the war, including wartime correspondence from Greene to family members, forms and reports prepared by Greene for the War Shipping Administration, and photographs. Greene was also the author of Small Foreign Car Guide (New York: Arco, 1967) and Mechanix Illustrated Small Car Guide (Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, 1967), and some of his papers, especially his photographs, pertain to automobiles.