The collection consists primarily of wood blocks (with some linoleum and zinc blocks) and prints that were later made from the blocks. The blocks, which came to the University of New Mexico in January 1976, had largely been used to illustrate Taos, N.M. publications associated with Willard "Spud" Johnson, including Laughing Horse, Horsefly, El Crepusculo (particularly the "Horsefly" section), Taos News, and the New Mexico Sentinel. Antonio Archuleta, Pedro Barela, Gustave Baumann, William Rose Benet, Emil Bisstram, Ernest Blumenschein, Manville Chapman, John Collier Jr. Regina Tatum Cook, Miguel Covarrubias, Richard Crisler, Cliff Harmon, Victor Higgins, Paul Horgan, Vernon Hunter, Willard Johnson, Gina Knee, D. H., Lawrence, Frieda Lawrence, Ward Lockwood, Ila McAfee, Loyd Moylan, Loren Mozley, W. E. Mruk, Datus Myers, B. J. O. Nolrdfeldt, Ida Rauh, Will Shuster, Carl van Vechten, and Carlos Vierra are credited with creating the original artwork for some of the blocks. It was not unusual for blocks to be reused in different issues of the same publication, or in different publications at different times. Titles and captions were not necessarily consistent from one publication to another. Themes represented by the blocks are predominantly southwestern in nature, and include pueblo architecture, churches, landscapes, Native Americans, cowboys, Taos literati (Mabel Dodge Luhan, D. H. Lawrence), animals, religious iconography, etc. Prints and photocopies of prints in box 5 were printed by an unknown individual or individuals. Art prints in box 6 were printed by Jane Abrams in 1982. The collection was previously known as the "Laughing Horse Collection."
