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The collection contains primarily correspondence and greeting cards, including correspondence with John Craig Wheeler (considered the father of "black holes") on parapsychology and its intersection with theoretical physics. Also includes news clippings and scrapbooks documenting McMahan's life; illustrations she made describing her travels aboard Pacific-traveling cargo ships; several of her self-published children's books; and compilations of her cartoons from "The Meadowlark, " a newsletter published by Carolina Meadows, a retirement community in Chapel Hill, N.C. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

The Mary McMillan Papers, 1936-1997 and undated (bulk 1952-1991), consist chiefly of journals and printed material, but also include correspondence, writings and speeches, photographic material, scrapbooks, clippings, videocassettes, audio cassettes, and memorabilia. Arranged in nine series based primarily on the format of the material, the papers illuminate the personal life and professional work of McMillan, a United Methodist missionary and teacher at the Hiroshima Jo Gakuin College in Hiroshima, Japan. In addition to her work as a teacher, the collection documents McMillan's service to the Kyodan, a unifying organization for Christian missionaries in Japan, and to the hibakusha, the survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as her peace activism. Also included are materials related to the Topaz Relocation Center, a Japanese-American internment camp in Utah where McMillan worked in 1943. The papers are mostly in English, but include some Japanese language materials.