The Lloyd and Ellen Cunningham Papers, spanning the years 1936 to 2000, includes letters, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, photographs, government correspondence, and other papers. The majority of the collection is centered around 1938 to 1957. The collection contains many letters between Lloyd and Ellen Cunningham and their friends and family back home. The letters cover a wide range of topics including everyday life, missionary work, internment, raising their children, liberation from internment, conditions in China leading up to the Second Sino-Japanese War, and conditions in China around the time of the Communist Revolution. The articles, published in the Gospel Messenger, cover topics including Church of the Brethren mission work and internment. Materials in this collection are divided into the following categories: Correspondence, Publications, Marlin Heckman’s Research and Notes, and Miscellaneous.

The Miscellaneous file includes Ellen’s journal, which she wrote years after internment. The Miscellaneous file also includes scrapbook pages of relevant currency notes, stamps, and envelopes, as well as undated newspaper clippings, a hand-drawn map of Claremont, CA, and a photograph. In an envelope, dated April 7, 1941, is a photograph of Lloyd, Ellen, and Larry.