The collection is organized in two series, FAMILY PAPERS and PHOTOGRAPHS.
The FAMILY PAPERS series is divided into General family, Bradt family, and Nelson family. The General family papers include Nelson-Bradt family histories and newsletters; memorabilia; and news clippings.
Material related to the Bradt family branch includes correspondence to Mary Bradt Nelson (1904-1960), mainly from her father and friends; correspondence regarding her political and civic activities (1917-1941), including letters from Robert La Follette, Jr. as chairman of the Republican State Central Committee of Wisconsin; a nursing scrapbook (circa 1907); childhood essays (circa 1893) and speech notes (circa 1922). There is also correspondence (1878-1886) belonging to Nora (O'Brien) Bradt, from Maurice O'Conner, presumably her cousin still living on Prince Edward Island, and copies of Sheldon Bradt's military and naturalization records.
The Nelson family branch is represented by little material, but it includes correspondence and memorabilia for Anton Nelson, Mamie (Nelson) Farley, Stannard Nelson, Gaylord Nelson, and Janet (Nelson) Lee. The correspondence belonging to Janet (Nelson) Lee is written to her parents during her time in Chung-King, China with her husband and in New York (1915-1959). The Gaylord Nelson material includes letters from primary school classmates; birth certificates; memorabilia; and a booklet (1943) from the School for Medical Department Enlisted Technicians, where he was an x-ray technician.
The PHOTOGRAPHS series reflects the arrangement of the Family Papers and includes portraits and informal photographs (1880s-1950s) of Nelson-Bradt family members, both immediate and extended; informal prints of Gaylord Nelson as a child and a young adult, alone and with siblings, and Gaylord with his U.S. Army x-ray class (1943). There are images from A. N. Nelson's time at Marquette University with classmates (circa 1906) and the exterior of his general practice in Clear Lake (circa 1916); of A. N. Nelson and his sister Gertrude at the Lydell residence in Centuria, Wisconsin (circa 1906); of Mary Bradt Nelson at Trinity Hospital School for Nurses and Milwaukee County Hospital's operating room (circa 1907); of the New London High School girls' basketball team (1898-1899); of children (identified and unidentified), often outside playing with toys (early 1900s); and of Clear Lake residents and other miscellaneous individuals (early 1900s).
