The Elizabeth Downe Norris Papers consist of 2.25 linear ft. of biographical and family history information, photographs, writings, and samples from her collections of memorabilia with associated reference files. The bulk of the papers is photographs and materials related to Norris' memorabilia collections.

This collection is organized into four series:

I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS AND CORRESPONDENCE contains general biographical information and memorabilia related to Elizabeth Norris, her husband, Roy Edwin Norris, and their son, Donald Edwin Norris. There is also a small genealogical research file and a small amount of correspondence.

II. PHOTOGRAPHS contains photographic prints and a few negatives. They are primarily family group and individual photographs, which document Downe family life in the 1910s and 20s, and the early years of Norris's marriage. Many of the photographs were assembled for Norris's self published family history "The Downe Family: Reflections on Three Generations, 1829-1935."

III. WRITINGS contains a variety of published and unpublished short pieces which give a good sense of Norris' talents as a writer. Subjects are primarily Downe family history, the YWCA, and memorabilia and collecting.

IV. MEMORABILIA COLLECTIONS contains reference materials and selections from Norris's decades of collecting memorabilia. Included are advertising, buttons, cloth patches, a few fabric items, pencils, photographs, pins, postcards, stamps and stickers. Norris's main collecting interests were sewing and needlework, women, and political movements associated with women, such as Temperance and Suffrage. The reference files consist of clippings from major newspapers and magazines and from collectors' publications from the 1970s-90s. Though Norris sold much of her memorabilia collection beginning in 2000, a sampling of the types of items that interested her remains. They are arranged by subject or type of item.