Correspondence covers from 1929 to 1946 and is primarily from family and friends. The Tolls would often pass letters along to one another, so there are packets of letters received by Katharine Toll that contain between two and five letters that were addressed to or from different family and friends and not addressed directly to her. Contained in the correspondence series are illustrated V-mails from Toll's brother Henry, an air force pilot. Letters in the collection frequently discuss daily life at home and in the service, providing a detailed portrait of a family with several children in military.

Journals and creative writings reflect Toll's interest in writing as a profession and as a hobby. The journal is mostly a nightly dream log, while creative writings are amusing short stories. An additional journal, kept during her WAVES service, is contained in Series 2. While this journal illustrates her personal reflections and observances while in the WAVES, it also contains some short stories written by Toll with WAVES as the main characters.

Financial records contain bank statements and check registers of Katharine Toll during her service with the WAVES.

The Military Correspondence and Orders subseries includes correspondence, official documents, and papers concerning duties, orders, and events related to Toll's service in the navy.

Journals and notes reflect Toll's daily life and experiences in the WAVES. The journal is broken down into chapters that include: class notes, short stories, press releases, daily duties, thoughts on military life, and camaraderie between WAVES.

Coursework from the U.S. Navl Training School and Naval Reserve Midshipman's School at Smith College reflect the educational requirements of WAVE officers.

Due to Toll's background in writing and journalism she was involved with several different publications during her service. Toll created most of these reports on ship decommissions and staff narratives for the Naval Historical Office.

Toll completed manuscript on the life of a WAVE, which she based off of her own personal experience and observances. This subseries contains the book manuscript as well as notes and correspondence related to the manuscript. The book was never published.

Publications document Toll's involvement with the , a WAVES newspaper that highlighted military news effecting WAVES and special interest topics. Toll also collected other WAVE and Naval publications such as and the . Toll also collected several major publications, such as magazine, that highlighted WAVES service as well as war posters for the WAVES and Navy. Also include WAVES recruiting posters.

Photographs in the collection are military, WAVE, and personal. Naval photographs include shipyards and photographs of WAVES performing assigned duties. Personal photographs often depict Toll in her uniform with her family and friends. Negatives in this collection match up with printed photographs.

This subseries contains an official WAVES handbook as well as small WAVES flyers, handouts, travel books, and published souvenirs. Also includes a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps handbook.

During the 1950's Toll worked on a biographical profile of Dr. Maria Telkes, a prominent scientist in the field of solar energy. Toll collected biographical information, research on solar energy, interviews, and written works of Maria Telkes. Included are several drafts of an article that Toll began on Telkes; they are all incomplete.

During the 1970s and 1980s Toll began to research the fisherman of Gloucester, Massachusetts, who participated in World War II in a civil service capacity. Toll joined the Gloucester Fisherman's Museum and began research, mainly through interviews and newspaper articles, in order to write a feature piece or book about the fisherman. This part of the collection includes her notes from interviews, several chapter drafts, news clippings, and memorabilia from the Gloucester Fisherman's Museum.