This series includes a variety of material by and about Dorothy Reed Mendenhall that documents her personal and professional experiences, including both her accomplishments and her struggles. It is arranged in the following eight subseries: Writings about Mendenhall, Education, Professional credentials, Legal documents, Financial documents, Personal records, Memorabilia, and Photographs. The bulk of the material in this series dates from 1891-1950s. Writings about Mendenhall includes two short biographical sketches and three brief accounts of Mendenhall's life. Her own autobiographical writings, written between 1939 and 1955, give the fullest picture of the events of her life and her feelings about them. Personal records contains drawings and writings from Mendenhall's childhood as well as other diaries, records and lists she saved over the course of her life. Photographs contains rich visual documentation of her life from her childhood in the 1870s to her old age in the 1950s, of her family, and of her environments and friendships at Smith College and Johns Hopkins University Hospital.

This series contains family records, memorabilia, and third party correspondence written by and received by various members of Mendenhall's family (including extended family) between 1805 and 1938. It is arranged in three subseries: Genealogical material, Individuals, and Legal and financial records. Genealogical material consists of notes and family trees Mendenhall put together in the course of researching her background and especially her relationship to the Dudley and Bradstreet families of seventeenth century Boston. Individuals is arranged alphabetically with material about miscellaneous family members filed at the end of the subseries. Each person's file contains various types of material by or about them including biographical material, correspondence, and memorabilia. Among the richest material in this series are the letters, poems, and sketches that came from her maternal grandmother Adaline Talcott Kimball and her family. In addition to documenting Talcott and Kimball family history this material sheds considerable light on Adaline Talcott Kimball's experiences as a young white woman growing up in upstate New York, dealing with potential suitors, and wrestling with some of the various intellectual trends that swirled around the United States in the 1830s and 1840s. Legal and financial records contains material that documents the accumulation of wealth and status in the Talcott and Kimball families between 1811 and the 1930s.

This series contains personal and professional correspondence, dating from 1891 to 1962 and is organized into two subseries: Family and Friends and associates. Family consists of correspondence with members of Mendenhall's immediate and extended family dating from 1891 to 1962 and arranged alphabetically. Mendenhall's letters to her mother Grace Kimball Reed date from 1896 to 1911 and are a particularly rich source of information about her daily life and thoughts and struggles during her days as a student, her years as a medical intern and resident in Baltimore and New York, and her difficult life as a new wife and mother in Madison, Wisconsin. Mendenhall's letters to her son Thomas Corwin Mendenhall Jr. and his wife Cornelia Baker Mendenhall, especially those written between 1938 and 1962, are a similarly rich source of information about her retirement years and her old age. Friends and associates includes a small amount of general correspondence consisting of letters from friends and colleagues who were not regular correspondents dating from 1901-60, the bulk of which are sympathy letters Mendenhall received in 1935 after her husband's death. This subseries consists primarily of material from friends and colleagues who corresponded regularly with Mendenhall between 1891 and 1957. Significant signatories include Bryn Mawr College president M. Carey Thomas and Mendenhall's distant cousin, the writer Edmund Wilson.

This series documents Dorothy Mendenhall's professional life from her internship at Johns Hopkins University Medical School in 1900 to her work for public health in the 1950s. The material is arranged according to the institution that administered it. Because Mendenhall often worked for more than one employer at a time, the institutions are arranged alphabetically as follows: Babies Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, United States Children's Bureau, United States Naval Yard Hospital, University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin, and Utah State Agricultural College. Types of material include correspondence, minutes, newspaper clippings, notes, printed material, and reports. The bulk of the material in this series consists of lectures, notes, and syllabi and examinations from Mendenhall's appointments at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin.

This series contains material relating to Dorothy Reed Mendenhall's many publications in the areas of pathology, maternal-infant health, pediatrics, public health, and children's nutrition between 1901 and 1937. Final published versions of the articles and pamphlets she wrote are arranged chronologically. Each publication is arranged with relevant correspondence, drafts, drawings and photographs, and other related material.