The collection contains correspondence papers and a booklet regarding the Chamber of Commerce of Roanoke, Virginia Postwar Planning Committee from 1946.

Two letters and minute meetings detail preparations for the publication and distribution of the booklet Roanoke Looking Ahead. The latter--which outlined the reconstruction of Roanoke, VA after World War II--was slated for release on the evening of January 25, 1946 and cost "$2,061.63 [for] all printing, layout and artwork, photographs, and engravings." As expressed by meeting minutes from January 23rd of that same year, all "in attendance were favorably impressed with the...presentation."

As for the booklet itself, Roanoke Looking Ahead is a relatively comprehensive guide on future municipal improvements. The Chamber of Commerce intended for plans such was wider streets, improved airports, and more highways to make Roanoke "a community where every citizen can walk with dignity and face the future with confidence." A small section towards the end of the booklet calls attention to urban "slums...[which] cost Roanoke thousands of dollars year after year." The booklet also includes a composite map that illustrates the distribution of "sub-standard dwellings" versus areas of "welfare, juvenile delinquency, tuberculosis and venereal disease." It is unknown how many of these improvements the committee actually enacted.