The collection contains photographs, photographic negatives, research journals, research papers, notes for addresses, article reprints, correspondence, reel to reel audio recordings of Iroquois language demonstrations and of Gordon Day. Also contains other ethnographic research materials related to the St. Frances Abenaki village at Odanak, Quebec, Canada and the history of the Abenaki, Algonquin and Iroquois tribes, with an emphasis on the Abenaki language.

Day was interested in the linguistics and genealogy of the native population at Odanak. A significant portion of the collection is a photographic essay created by Day's summer research assistant, William Bryant, and A.F. Whiting at the Dartmouth College Museum. The photo essay shows various native villages in New England (Mashpee, MA; Princeton, ME; Old Town, ME.) and a "Photographic Census" of inhabitants of Odanak, Quebec.