The G. Malcolm Laws' collection consists of correspondence, catalogues, English class notes, maps and tourist guides, memoirs, royalties, Voice of America correspondence, John I. White correspondence, White House Library organization, articles and writings, Princeton fifty year class reunion book, diverse writings and articles from Laws, general information forms on Laws' personal and public life, writings and book reviews on Laws' three published books - Native American Balladry, American Balladry from British Broadsides,, and, The British Literary Ballad, book reviews from Laws on other works, manuscripts and typescripts of his three books, an encapsulated broadside, and a ballad bibliography.

This collection primarily revolves around Laws' devoted writing and teaching career in the field of American and British folklore. The core of his folklore interest that focused on mid-eighteenth century British balladry and American balladry from the dawn of the nineteenth century is evident in his collection.

Broken down, his collection consists of nineteen boxes. The first two boxes contain outgoing and incoming correspondence - the former is arranged chronologically and the latter alphabetically. The incoming correspondence can simply be matched with the outgoing by referring to the date. Because of the extensive correspondence from John I. White, his material is located in the topics section in box 4.

A general rule of thumb with the boxes 3 through 7 is that they are arranged alphabetically by the topic name, author's last name, or title's name. If several dated documents are found in a given group, they are arranged chronologically. If several non-dated documents are found in a given group, they are arranged alphabetically.

Boxes 3 and 4 contain a diversified group of alphabetized topics: catalogues, English classes taught, maps/postcards/museum pamphlets, memoirs, programs, royalties, Voice of America (VOA) material, correspondence from John I. White, and White House library. Boxes 5 and 6 consist of articles and writings from Laws' folklore collection that are arranged alphabetically according to the author's name and alphabetically according to the title when no author is given. Box 7 contains the Princeton Fifty Year Class Reunion book and a letter from Tip.

Boxes 8 through 17 consist of Laws' vast collection of writings. Box 8 contains some of his miscellaneous writings, ranging from essays to unpublished articles, and is arranged chronologically. Box 9 consists of general information forms of Laws' personal life, writings/book reviews on his three published books with some related advertisements of the books, reviews from Laws' concerning other works, and finally, articles by Laws. Folders on his three published books are arranged chronologically (the order the books were published), and the several articles pertaining to each book are alphabetized by the name of society/journal/quarterly. Folders on Laws' reviews are arranged alphabetically by the title of the book. Folders on Laws' articles are arranged alphabetically.

Boxes 10 through 17 contain the manuscripts and typescripts of Laws' three published books. They are arranged chronologically (the order they were published). The manuscripts and typescripts of each book are also arranged chronologically.

Box 18 contains an encapsulated broadside. Box 19 consists of Laws' bibliography on American ballad collections and humor.

It is noteworthy to mention that a considerable part of Laws' collection, consisting of a library of folklore books, has been separated from this collection and catalogued as Folk Collection 19: The G. Malcolm Laws Ballad Collection. After spending over fifty years in one of his favorite avocational pastimes - book collecting, Laws' amassed a remarkably valuable collection of rare and out-of-print material. In addition, for further information on one of Laws' prominent correspondents, John I. White, who was an authority on western cowboy songs, refer to USU Collection Mss 201: The John I. White Papers.