The collection contains a variety of adult and children's materials, fiction and nonfiction books by local authors, photographs, scrapbooks, typescripts, manuscripts, autographed editions, letters, newspapers, magazines, and regalia.
The collection features materials related to Kurt Vonnegut, May Wright Sewall, the Woollen family, James Whitcomb Riley, and Booth Tarkington.
[1] The special collections and room at Central Library are named in honor of Nina Mason Pulliam (1906–1997), an American journalist, author, and newspaper executive in Arizona and Indiana, where she was also well known as a philanthropist and civic leader.
The Indianapolis Authors collection of first editions of Meredith Nicholson, James Whitcomb Riley, Booth Tarkington, and others also has a variety of items beyond books.
Another collector, Arthur H. Rumpf, donated a collection of approximately 100 historic menus, including those from railroad dining cars, hotels, and testimonial-recognition dinners.