Shattuck's private and professional lives were intricately interwoven, and as such, the contents of this series pertain both to Louise's personal affairs and business ventures. With a few exceptions, the correspondence dates from Louise's childhood in the 1920s forward, with somewhat uneven survival through the years. Among the relatively few letters of Sarah Shattuck are some fascinating glimpses into her mediumistic activities, including a "Translation of a Persian message to the world given through the mediumship of Sara Bickford" (undated), written on the letterhead of the Spiritualist historian of Lake Pleasant, H.A. Budington, and a letter from John E. Coover of Stanford University (1915) discussing his views of automatic writing.

Series 1 also includes a large number of pen sketches and cartoons, largely depicting dogs, and numerous contracts for figurines Shattuck created for Contemporary Arts (mostly under the pseudonym Anna Dyer), the American Pewter Company, Hudson Pewter, and the Lance Corporation. Together, these provide a sense of the range of Shattuck's commercial work and how her interests evolved through the course of her career. Other miscellaneous items include newspaper clippings and a variety of legal documents, including birth certificates for Louise and other members of her family.

Shattuck kept a diary regularly from 1928 to 2005. At the end of almost each day, she wrote at least one full page discussing the day's work and events, often commenting that she was not getting enough done, and occasionally referring to money issues or personal conflicts. Two diaries in the series (1916, 1952)belonged to Louise's mother, Sarah Bickford Shattuck.

While not born in Lake Pleasant, Louise was in a sense born to Lake Pleasant. From her mother and mother's mother, she inherited mediumistic abilities. Series 3 contains abundant evidence of Louise's efforts at spirit communication, including extensive sheafs of automatic writing, spirit writing, and transcripts of Ouija board sessions, along with a small number of relatively scarce Spiritualist pamphlets published by the Star Publishing Company of Springfield, Mass. While Lake Pleasant portcards have been included in this series, photographs and other audio/visual materials pertaining to Lake Pleasant and Spiritualism are to be found in Series 4: Audio/Visual.

This series contains primarily photographs, dating from the late 1800s to 2005. Several photograph albums are dedicated to documenting Louise's English cocker spaniels as they progressed in their training, while others pertain primarily to recording her artwork, especially sculpture. Of note are a number of photographs of Louise herself, from when she was less than a year old to very near the end of her life. Also included are slides and negatives as well as CD-ROM slide shows and a single video cassette. All audio or visual materials relating to Spiritualism and Lake Pleasant are to be found in this series.

Among the realia in the Shattuck Papers are several examples of Shattuck's artwork, most notably her statue of an Arab rider on horseback, created under the influence of the spirit, Charles Memling. Also included are Spiritualist artifacts such as a feathered headdress (from Lake Pleasant's Independent Order of Scalpers), a set of divining rods, and a Ouija board, and less directly three unidentified locks of human hair, and Shattuck's cremated remains, housed in a sealed vessel in the shape of a dog's head. Finally, the series includes a framed self-portrait by Sarah Bickford Shattuck, ca.1920?, dressed in a white gown worn during a Spiritualist play.