This collection contains the papers of Carter Perkins, Jr., a student at Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Virginia Tech) during the 1890s and a resident of Newport News, Virginia. The collection consists largely of memorabilia relating to Perkins's college years, including the 1894/1895 VAMC catalog, copies of the 1895 and 1898 editions of the school's annual (The Bugle), and a few photographs of campus scenes. A file devoted to the university's War Memorial Hall includes fundraising literature as well as building plans and the building dedication.

The collection also includes a business journal and a daybook, both bearing Perkins's name. The books both contain business transaction entries, and the daybook describes the establishment of the Auburn Bank at Blacksburg in 1894. Rather than detailing actual business transactions, the books were likely used by Perkins for class assignments in bookkeeping. The daybook, for example, includes several pages that are headed "Albany," which contain accounting entries copied verbatim from The New Bryant and Stratton Common School Book-keeping (New York: Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor, 1878). A copy of the November 1904 issue of The Burr McIntosh Monthly completes the collection. The small-format magazine is devoted to photographs of scenery and celebrities of the day.