Cruikshank’s personal papers include materials that are biographical or reflect daily moments of her life such as her oral history interview with the Minnesota Lesbian Community Organizing Oral History Project, her resume, bibliographies of her published work, journal entries, a trip itinerary, and photos.

The bulk of the collection is made of Peg Cruikshank’s correspondence including personal and professional letters sent and received discussing her books, specific periodical or journal pieces, and academic activities. The correspondence is grouped by ‘correspondence’ which contains personal and academic topics, ‘literary correspondence’, which focuses on Cruikshank’s writing, and ‘Feminist Press correspondence’, which are exchanges between Cruikshank and people publishing her work at the Feminist Press. Correspondence related to her books, articles, and academic endeavors is found elsewhere in the collection, to preserve Cruikshank’s organization of materials.

Book publication materials contain book reviews, reader notes, publisher notes, correspondence, royalty payouts, contracts, and chapter drafts as they appear for Cruikshank’s books Lesbian Studies, The Lesbian Path, Fierce With Reality, and Learning to Be Old.

Research and writings includes work done in an academic capacity such as syllabi, bibliographies, course materials compiled and created by Cruikshank, reflections on her experiences working in academia, academic administrative correspondence, materials accumulated from her Fulbright Fellowships; as well as her talks, conference papers, panel contributions, articles, essays, letters to the editor, and published book reviews. It also includes a number of publications not written or referencing Cruikshank, but were collected by her on topics related to her work.

Ephemera contains publicity flyers and notices for her classes, speaking engagements, and book releases, and clippings. Ephemera also contains miscellaneous materials such as materials related to publishing, literary activities, articles, essays.