A large amount of the correspondence was written during World War II, when Samuel B. Nickels, Jr. was serving with the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, first while stationed at Camp Wheeler and Fort Benning in Georgia, Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and then in Nashville, Tennessee, and Evansville, Indiana. Most of the letters are from Beth Archer Barnard to Nickels prior to their marriage. Subjects include courtship, her drafting career and job prospects, teaching duties at Surry High School, health, mail deliveries and phone calls, visits, wedding plans, finances, and social activities in Hopewell.

After Pearl Harbor, her letters begin to express a concern for his safety during his military training, and her fears over his impending deployment. Other topics include fuel and tire rationing and shortages, opinions on the duration and outcome of the war, and news of mutual acquaintances. The correspondence after September 1943 is mainly from Nickels after his unit was deployed overseas to England. He writes about his loneliness and homesickness, weather, news of his comrades, recreational activities, mail and package deliveries, and his health.

The 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment was a part of the D-Day invasion at Normandy on 6 June 1944. The correspondence from this time period is mainly between Beth and her parents, and friends whose husbands were serving with Nickels, and discuss concern for Sam's safety, and the lack of information concerning his whereabouts. Later letters are written by Nickels while he was recuperating in England from wounds to his hand. His unit was also involved in the Battle of the Bulge, and the seige of Bastogne, and there are letters written by him during this period. Finally, there are letters written to Beth from friends and family concerning the end of the war in Europe, and rumors of the unit's return to the United States. There is also a good deal of correspondence to Beth from her mother who was attending summer school sessions at State Teachers College in Farmville, Virginia, and from her father, Edgar C. Barnard (b. 1895), detailing his work as a civil engineer in Texas, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

The post-war correspondence is includes job application letters, and letters written while Sam and Beth were on a trip to St. Louis. The latest letters in the collection are mainly to Judith Fenner Barnard, and are from family and friends in California, Florida, and Washington State. There are also letters written to her from former students, including one who was serving in combat during the Vietnam War. Other topics in the later correspondence relate to Barnard's involvement in various organizations including the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, the Society of the Descendants of Francis Epes I of Virginia, the Appomattox Manor Foundation, and her interest in Virginia history and family genealogy.

Chronological.

The subject files include materials relating to the James River Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, newspaper clippings, information on Beth Nickels's interest in architecture and her drafting career at Camp Lee and Binswanger Glass, school compositions and examinations of Judith Fenner Barnard while she was attending the State Teacher's College in Farmville, greeting cards, insurance papers, wedding invitations, photographs, Bible records of the Pulliam family of Prince George County, poetry, "The Bugle," the 1940 yearbook of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, letters from a former student of Barnard's who was serving with the military in Vietnam, a diary of Beth Archer Barnard covering the years 1933 and 1936 to 1939, and other items.

The school teacher files document Judith Fenner Barnard's long career at Patrick Copeland Elementary School in Hopewell, Virginia. The series includes class exercises, lesson plans, class photographs, lists of students, calendars, programs, memoranda, and information from workshops and conferences she attended. There are also newsletters of the Hopewell Education Association, and numerous educational publications and instructional aids.