This series provides a basic overview about Margaret Goddard Holt and her extended family. It is organized into four subseries: Family history, Margaret Goddard Holt, Other Family members, and Memorabilia. The series begins with genealogical and historical information, followed by biographical information about Margaret Holt, and other family members listed alphabetically by last name. Materials pertaining to Margaret Holt contain substantive writings about her, including autobiographical statements, eulogies and obituaries, and articles and clippings, as well as calendars; and records of her donations to peace, social justice, and political groups and organizations. If the amount is negligible, writings by some family members are included in this series rather than SERIES III. WRITINGS. Margaret Holt's relationships to family and friends are explained in Appendix.

This series is arranged in two subseries: Margaret Goddard Holt and Other family members. It begins with letters between Margaret Holt and her family, followed by correspondence with employers (a very small amount), friends and acquaintances, death row inmates, and letters to newspaper editors and elected government officials. Holt's correspondence contains a set of letters she designated those "which in some way help make MGH feel that her life hasn't been wasted." Correspondence within each subseries is arranged alphabetically by the author's last name. The use of nicknames is common in this series; see Appendix for identification.

This series consists of three subseries, beginning with the writings of Margaret Goddard Holt and followed by Other family members, and Writings by others. In addition to essays, poems, short stories, and drafts of a book, Holt's writings also contain travel diaries of several trips to the American Southwest and to Europe. Travel diaries are complemented by correspondence written to Holt's friends during her travels, notably to Kitty and Rudy Praetz, and by Lee E. Holt's photographs in SERIES VI. PHOTOGRAPHS. Margaret Holt's diaries overlap with her sketchbooks in SERIES V. ARTWORK, in that there are sketches in many of the former and informal diary entries in the latter. The writings of Harold Clarke Goddard and Lee E. Holt are primarily academic; those of Helen Holt consist of a booklet of privately published poems.

This series, which complements SERIES VII. SUBJECTS, documents Margaret G. Holt's involvement in three distinct spheres of political activism, and is accordingly arranged in three subseries: Anthrax research protest pertains to civil actions undertaken in protest of anthrax research conducted at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and includes documentation of publicity surrounding the case and of Holt's legal defense; Gray Panthers contains materials generated by Holt's work with the Pioneer Valley branch of this national organization; and Vigils pertains to the peace and social justice vigils that Holt initiated in 1967, and continued organizing and attending until just prior to her death in 2004, and contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, leaflets, and fliers. There is visual documentation of the vigils in SERIES VII: PHOTOGRAPHS.

This series contains six subseries, Writings, Conservation, Drawings and paintings, Sketchbooks, Copy photographs and slides, and Artwork by others. The first two subseries describe Holt's work as an artist, and efforts by Lee and Margaret Holt to have some of the better paintings cleaned, repaired, and conserved. The drawings and paintings themselves are arranged by subject, with larger items filed in oversize boxes. The sketchbooks are filed chronologically, and many of them contain musings, political commentary, and brief diary entries in addition to drawings.

This series contains photographs and transparencies of four generations of the Goddard and Holt families and their friends, including formal portraits and snapshots, travel photographs, and visual documentation of vigils and other political actions. With the exception of photographs of Margaret Holt's and Lee Holt's respective childhoods and images of earlier generations, virtually all of the photographs were taken by Lee E. Holt after he and Margaret married in 1939.

This series contains materials pertaining to Margaret Goddard Holt's lifelong interest in the many facets of peace and social justice activism at the local, state, national, and international levels. The bulk of the series is comprised of four subseries, Countries, Death penalty, Peace and disarmament, and Politics, reflecting the issues of most concern to Holt. All subseries are arranged alphabetically either by topic or by organization name.