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Contains 187 black-and-white prints, 25 color prints, 44 negatives, and circa 150 slides documenting three topics: the life of Hal Call; materials which may have been assembled by Call relating to an unidentified project on the history of gay erotica; and the early history of the Mattachine Society. The bulk of the materials relate to Hal Call and document his childhood, family, military service in World War II, work history, and include a variety of professional portraits and personal snapshots taken at different periods of his life. Separated by format, then arranged alphabetically by topic.

A variety of clippings, flyers, legal case histories, newsletters, photocopied articles, research about the history of erotica, and other printed materials. Consists mainly of documents generated by or about various chapters of the Mattachine Society in the 1960s and 1970s, but also includes research that Sears gathered in preparing his book. Newsletters from Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco form the largest category, comprising about a third of the materials gathered here. The Randy Wicker folders contain materials by and about Wicker. Arranged alphabetically, with folder titles derived from topical subjects, publication titles, and people's names.

Correspondence, writings, interview transcripts, administrative files, minutes, diaries, memoirs, printed materials, relating to the life of Hal Call, prominent member of the early gay rights movement, the history of the Mattachine Society with which Call was engaged, and the writing of Sears' book Behind the Mask of the Mattachine. Arranged in the following series: Administrative, Financial, and Legal Files; Hal Call Papers; Correspondence; Diaries, Memoirs, Yearbooks; Drafts; Interview Transcripts; Photographic Material; and Printed Material. The bulk of the personal papers of Hal Call date from the early 1940s to the 1970s and include correspondence, writings, diaries, and printed matter related to the early years of the gay liberation movement. See descriptions below for more detail on each group of materials.