Due to the piecemeal nature in which portions of the collection were acquired, there is little or no original order left to the material. Instead, items have been divided into three broad series: I. Personal and Family, II. Professional, and III. Writings. Series I contains personal correspondence, autobiographical writings by Swenson, and materials pertaining to her family and their history. Series II contains professional correspondence, awards and honors, publicity, and business-related records. Series III contains examples of Swenson's writings, mainly poems but also a play script and folklore interviews conducedt for the W.P.A.'s Folklore Project during the Great Depression.

While the majority of the collection is composed of primary material, there are some portions that contain photocopies, either of material still held by the Literary Estate or from the May Swenson collection at Washington University in St. Louis. Also scattered throughout the collection are brief notes from Zan Knudson explaining the significance of a particular items. These notes accompanied the original donations, and were retained to provide researchers with an additional context.