This series provides an overview of the lives of Dora Goodale and Elaine Goodale Eastman; there are only fragments for some other family members. Of particular interest are newspaper clippings about the "Child Poets" of Sky Farm and the wedding of Elaine and Charles. Jessica George's undergraduate honors essay provides the best available overview of Dora Goodale's life.

This series is organized into two subseries: Family and Friends and associates. The Family portion is the more voluminous subseries and is arranged alphabetically by the family member who wrote the letters. The recipients are also alphabetical under the author heading. Many of the letters in this subseries were annotated, and a few were transcribed, by Ted Sargent when he was researching his biography of Elaine Goodale Eastman. Some of his notes identifying people and topics, and all of his transcriptions, are attached to the originals. Substantial correspondence to Rose from Elaine and Dora sheds light on Dora's life, especially her time at Uplands Sanatorium, and Elaine's during her years in Northampton. These letters range widely in topics from literature to social reform to child-rearing to musings (sometimes tinged with bitterness) on family history and relationships. Elaine's reflections about her early adventures and marriage to Charles are especially illuminating. The letters from the 1930s, especially Elaine's, are evocative of Great Depression-era politics. This series includes the courtship correspondence of Rose Goodale and Redington Dayton. Of special interest are letters from James Dayton to his parents written during his residence in the Eastman household in Amherst, Massachusetts while he was attending the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now University of Massachusetts Amherst). He shared information about the Eastman family during a time in their lives when other sources are scant. There are also letters from both Rose's sons that describe their college experiences. (Theodore was attending Amherst College.) See also SERIES III. WRITINGS for correspondence regarding the childhood writings of Elaine and Dora, and Dora's later work. SERIES VI. SCRAPBOOKS also includes a few letters related to the family's writings.

This series is arranged by individual author (Elaine's and Dora's childhood writings are filed under Elaine's name), and then by genre. The bulk of the writings in this series were authored by Elaine Goodale Eastman and Charles Eastman. Dora Goodale is also well represented. There are a handful of poems and essays by other family members, especially Deborah Hill Read Goodale. Most of the writings were published as books or in newspapers or periodicals, but there are also a few unpublished manuscripts and typescripts. Family members, especially Elaine, wrote prolifically in many genres: memoirs, novels, children's books, poetry, short stories, plays, biography, articles, essays, and letters to the editor. The oldest item is a short journal written at Sky Farm by Eleanor Rogers Lyon Read in 1866. Family members regularly contributed to national and local publications, such as The Woman's Journal, The Woman's Home Companion, The Christian Century, The New York Times, The Springfield (Massachusetts) Daily Republican, The Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, Mass.), and many others. Elaine and Charles wrote about Native American life and public policy, and Elaine also addressed the topics of nature, farming, and domestic life, especially early in her career. She also contributed articles related to her organizational activities with the D.A.R., League of Women Voters, and the Northampton Motion Picture Council. Other members of the family wrote poetry and articles about nature, farming, and other subjects. SERIES VI. SCRAPBOOKS includes articles, essays, poems, reviews, and letters to the editor from magazines and newspapers.

This series is organized alphabetically by the name of the organization or subject file. The subject matter is primarily about Native Americans, but there is also a small amount of material about the D.A.R. blacklist controversy in the late 1920s and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Northampton Branch. The bulk of the material appears to have been saved by Elaine Eastman in Northampton during the 1940s and early 1950s and dates from that period.

This small series is organized by individual or place. Its most notable content is the series of photographs taken by Elaine at the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota, documenting events surrounding the Wounded Knee Massacre. Photographs of sites related to the Eastmans were taken by Keith F. Johnson in 1993.

There are ten scrapbooks in this series that overlap with each other in terms of subject matter and date span. Most, if not all, were apparently compiled by Elaine Goodale Eastman, who donated them. Most of the items in the scrapbooks have to do with the writings of the family, primarily Dora and Elaine, but Deborah Hill Read Goodale, Henry Goodale, and Rose Goodale Dayton are also represented. The scrapbooks have been numbered in an arbitrary manner. Two of the scrapbooks relate to ElaineÆs and DoraÆs childhood writings. There are four scrapbooks that contain mostly writings by Elaine relating to her career teaching and advocating for Native Americans, but also on other topics such as homemaking, children, and her organizational involvement. There is one scrapbook that mostly contains writings by others about Native Americans. DoraÆs post-childhood writings are collected in two of the scrapbooks. Finally, there is one scrapbook of miscellaneous writings, mostly poems, by Elaine, Dora, Rose, and their parents.

One box contains two folders of miscellaneous printed materials.