The collection consists of the papers of Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Edwin J. Peterson. A substantial amount of the collection consists of notebooks that Peterson kept during and after his tenure as a justice, which detail his day-to-day activities. There are also an additional 11 notebooks that Peterson dedicated specifically to writing notes about hearings he presided over.

Other materials in the collection include appointment calendars, Oregon State Bar directories, bound volumes of Peterson's judicial opinions, photograph albums, and scrapbooks. The photograph albums contain photographs of Peterson and other justices at work, at conferences, and at professional and social gatherings; the scrapbooks contain correspondence, clippings, photographs, and ephemera relating to Peterson's career. While Peterson compiled most of these scrapbooks himself, the collection includes one scrapbook that the Multnomah Bar Association presented to Peterson at a 1994 event in his honor.