The Kay Burford papers date from 1918-2010 and are arranged in four series: Personal, Professional, Photographs, and Audiovisual.

The Personal (1918-2010) series includes daily planners, address books, and school records belonging to Burford. Some highlights of the series include a cook book used by Burford’s mother, and a program for an Iowa City art exhibit, “The Fascinating History of Cats,” which Burford spoke about for a local group, the Raphael Club. The correspondence section of the series is largely made up of letters from the Burfords and their children to their extended family when they lived in the United Kingdom in 1960-1961. Finally, this series concludes with a significant amount of material related to the end of Burford’s life such as condolences, obituaries, and a list of gifts given to community organizations in memory of her life.

The Professional (1938-2008) series contains correspondence, copyright registration, drafts, and final copies for many of Burford’s published and unpublished works from 1938-1994. This series includes drafts of several scenes from Burford’s unpublished work, Grud’s Garden, on paper and acetate as well as correspondence, drafts, and photographs of models for Burford’s illustrations for Kimako’s Strory. Additionally, this series contains a copy of the issue of Junior Bazaar in which her work “Bedtime Story” was published, a list of shows in which Burford’s artwork was displayed, and thank you cards from elementary school students after Burford visited their class.

Materials related to the artists’ colony, Yaddo, and Burford’s time there, are in the Yaddo (1971-2008) subseries. The subseries includes one Yaddo newsletter, correspondence from Yaddo friends and acquaintances, and several signed books of poetry and prose by authors Burford knew at Yaddo. One of these, The Princess of 72nd Street by Elaine Kraf, is dedicated to Kay Burford.

The Photographs (1970-1973) series includes photographs of Burford’s friends, family, and pets, most of which are undated. Many of the photographs in this series are portraits of writers at Yaddo and in Iowa City. The Friends, Photograph album folder also contains photographs of the Franzen Brothers circus, which may have served as inspiration for Byron Burford’s circus themed art.

The Audiovisual series includes a DVD entitled “Kay Burford: 1920-2009” and slides related to an art exhibit entitled “The Fascinating History of the Cat.” Burford presented these slides as a member of the Iowa City Raphael Club.