The collection focuses on the three Wisconsin capitols and the Capitol Square area, State Street, the lakes and the Yahara River, and the University campus. There also is strong documentation of several special topics such as Frank Lloyd Wright's Carroll Street Boathouse and Rocky Roost, the William F. Vilas House, the Lucius Fairchild gardens, Stanley Hanks' Lakewood development and other houses built in the 1920s, the Walker Castle, Conklin's Ice House, and Fuller's Woods. Documentation of recreational boating, a hobby of the Hanks family, is particularly strong.
In addition, subject files provide documentation of miscellaneous activities, groups, individuals, and locations, which are for the most part unidentified. Some pictured individuals may be members of the Hanks family.
A few locations beyond Madison, such as the Tallman House in Janesville, are included. Individuals pictured include Capt. Frank Barnes, C.B. Chapman, Thomas Coleman, William G. Dunn, Philip La Follette, Andrew Meyer, Frank Riley, Gilbert Roe, Louis D. Sumner, Francis Guiteau Tibbitts, and Samuel Warren.
