The collection consists of records, primarily minutes and a membership ledger, of the Bookbinders and Bindery Women's Union, Local 31-125 and its predecessors, dating primarily from 1902 to 1970. The agenda of the minutes typically include interaction with other unions, new business, and finances, including membership dues and expenses. Beginning with 1927, membership ledgers and the minutes were bound in the same volumes. Early membership ledgers show that many of the members had Irish names. The collection also includes bank records, dance cards and banquet programs, arbitration agreements, and constitutions and by-laws.

The records, especially those that deal with the merger, give valuable information on gender-related labor issues such as the lives of working women, and the relative power of women in consolidated unions. Originally two unions, one for men and one for women, the two unions joined in 1917; Volumes 3 (1910-1918) and 6 (1906-1917) include the merger negotiations of the two locals. At first the women were reluctant to consolidate and demanded that they be allowed to retain their particular line of work, that men not be allowed to go on their machines, that women not be allowed to bronze, that they be taken in with equal voting rights, that they retain their regular holidays, and that they "retain a self supporting woman in the office." A joint committee was established and it was decided that the vice president was to be a woman, that two out of four elected executive committee members were to be women, and that an equal number of men and women would be sent as delegates to the Allied Printing Trades Council and the Labor Council. The Joint Committee granted most of the women's demands except that women were not given an equal vote on the election of officers, finances and strikes. On these issues they were given half a vote. The women's local agreed to merge but protested that they wanted equal votes on strikes because they felt that the issue of strikes was of "equal interest to all." They did not succeed in this demand. Women who lived far away were excused from attending regular meetings at night. Minimum wages and hours were set for both with men earning more. Loose pages in volume 6 relate to the merger and include letters from the Labor Council relating to the restriction of the immigration of "coolies."

Many of the women felt that the merger put them at a disadvantage for they gave away the control of their union and they were restricted to less skilled labor. The later volumes include some discussion of health issues and maximum hours of work a day. Other volumes also give information on wage and hours negotiation and relations with local and national labor movements.