The Vera Holzhauer papers date from 1915 to 2000 and measure 8 linear inches. The papers are arranged into two series: Biographical and Diaries.

The Biographical series (1978-2000) include photocopied newspaper articles, photocopied pictures, and biographies pertaining to Vera Sherberger Holzhauer and her family. Included in the biographies is a booklet entitled "The Sherberger/Holzhauer/Knott Stories," written by Holzhauer's daughter, Dorothy Holzhauer Knott, in 2000. This booklet describes various personal stories that revolve around the Sherberger, Holzhauer, and Knott families during the late 19th century and the early-to-mid 20th century, such as one story that describes the Holzhauer family's road trip to Montana in 1924 in the family's Model T Ford. The photocopied pictures display Holzhauer throughout her life. The series also includes photocopies of newspaper articles about an incident in 1903 when Harry Holzhauer was shot while working at a button factory in Muscatine by an African American man named Frank Brown.

The Diaries series (1915-1959) include four account books from the years 1915 to 1917 and 1945, and eighteen diaries that Holzhauer kept from the years 1943 to 1959. Holzhauer's account books illuminate how she balanced her household's budget and what kinds of items her household consumed during those years, which include years during both World War I and World War II. Holzhauer's diaries describe daily life as a homemaker and Sunday school teacher in the 1940s and 1950s, and details personal events in her life ranging from birthdays of her loved ones to the death of her husband Harry in 1958. The diaries from 1943 to 1945 describe Holzhauer's experience of World War II as the mother of a son who was serving in the military and reveal all the anxiety that that induced for her. Holzhauer consistently noted during these years whenever she received a letter from her son and noted news pertaining to the war in several of her entries. One such entry was on June 6th, 1944, when she mentioned the beginning of the D-Day Invasion and how everyone was glued to the news reports on the radio all that day. Additionally, at the beginning of every diary from the years 1943 to 1945 Holzhauer writes how she wishes for the war to be over with and how she hopes that that year will be the year in which the war will end. Entries in the years 1946, 1951, 1952, and 1959 are scattered and less consistent than the other diaries included in the series.