The Pauline E. Burks Family Papers include correspondence, account books, essays, receipts, newspaper clippings, family Bibles, and plats and surveys of the Broaddus, Burks, Edmonds, Taliaferro, and Vaughan families of Amherst County, Virginia.

Papers about the families include 18th-century land and property information for Virginia and 19th-century financial papers and ledgers as well as both personal and business correspondence. Most early materials pertain to the Broaddus, Edmonds and Taliaferro families. More contemporary materials from the late 19th and 20th centuries are found in the Vaughan and Burks papers. Most of the 20th-century papers are the informal correspondence of the Broaddus and Pauline Burks family, dating from the 1930s to the 1980s.

Other materials include a set of transcriptions of record books from Amherst County, Virginia from a series called Courthouse Miniatures, and other printed materials, such as magazines and newspapers. The magazine and newspaper selection consists only of selected issues and clippings from the periodicals, but contains interesting local news and advertisements. Also of note are a few clothing catalogs, patterns, and sewing instructions from around 1900. Children's publications such as Youth's Companion and activity pages complement the Virgnia schoolteacher information found in the Burks and Vaughan family materials.