The collection was kept in the original order it was given. There are five series based on format.

Series 1, Travel Literature

Series 2, Postcards

Series 3, Photographs

Series 4, Playbills

Series 5, Personal Files

A majority of the collection consists of travel literature for both the U.S. and abroad ranging over fifty years. Included are booklets, maps, and brochures. A postcard collection includes “Art Colortone” postcards (before 1960s) collected during Howell’s travels.

Photographs in Series 3 were found among the travel literature and were made a separate series. Most are without captions. Series 4 contains playbills and programs collected by Howell beginning in the 1940s. A majority are from the Metropolitan Opera and Broadway shows.

The personal files include several photographs of Megginson and a group photograph of a Greer High School Class of 1942 reunion; several pieces of correspondence, programs from plays and concerts at Furman University, and programs from his graduation in 1945; his résumé and death certificate. Howell was editor of the S.C. Library Association (SCLA) newsletter, South Carolina Librarian, from 1956-1958. The collection contains issues for 1956-1957 with correspondence for 1956-1958. Family history includes a photograph of his mother and his father’s WWI Enlistment Record. Oversize material contains yearbooks and diplomas. An oversize map of the United States has twenty-one stops indicated for a trip in the U.S.