Fourteen photo albums and loose photographs depict Hammersley, his friends and family, travels to Europe and throughout the United States, exhibitions, and works of art. Hammersley was an amateur photographer and most of the exhibition and artwork images were taken by him and are identified and dated. There is also an extensive set of photos organized by Hammersley into shoeboxes and photo boxes. These photographs have been left in their original order.

Seven of the fourteen photo albums were created by Anna and Harold Hammersley, which include photos of friends, family, landscapes, and city scenes. The other six photo albums were created by Frederick Hammersley and include photos from his time in school, in the army, his travel, his cats, and his family, friends, and artwork. There is also one album of negatives.

An extensive collection of slides, largely produced by Hammersley, document his own artwork as well as work by others used as teaching aids, as well as source material and travel photography are part of a later addition.

Duplicate photographs likely exist. As a photographer, Hammersley experimented with contrast and sizing which resulted in many copies of the same photograph. When found, duplicates within the shoebox and photoboxes organized by Hammersley were returned. These same images, however, may appear elsewhere in the series.

Materials are arranged by document type and subject matter.

This series has been partially scanned. Negatives, slides, and many photographs of works of art have not been scanned.