The series consists of correspondence, memorabilia, manuscripts and clippings, as well as a small amount of material on the CBC, Canadian Film Awards and National Film Board.
The correspondence files include correspondence, 1935-1936, between Lewis and London Film Productions, Twentieth-Century Fox, Fox British Pictures, Paramount, Criterion Film Productions, Pascal Film Productions, and Alexander Korda, documenting her attempts to find work. There is correspondence with the National Film Board documenting Lewis' employment there and correspondence relating to her efforts to publish short stories and articles in various periodicals. Among Lewis's correspondents are William Hornbeck, 1936; F.C. Badgley, Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau, 1940; John Grierson, 1940-1944; Douglas Fairbanks Jr., 1940-1941; Alexander Korda, 1940; Gabriel Pascal, 1939- 1941; Jim F.C. Wright, 1942; Lloyd Nosler, 1944, 1946; Louis Applebaum, 1945; Lew Parry, Vancouver Motion Pictures, 1945 and Trans-Canada Films, 1946. Included are special retirement messages sent in 1969 from John Grierson and Josef von Sternberg. There is also some personal correspondence, including letters from G. Harrison Smith, 1940s, and Lewis's cousin, Toronto journalist and ad writer, Edith Macdonald, n.d., 1944-1945.
Memorabilia includes an inscribed, autographed printed photo of Josef von Sternberg; a copy of Helen Lewis's birth certificate; membership cards for the Society of Motion Picture Film Editors, 1938, 1942 and for the Paramount Studio Club, 1929-30; Lewis's employee card as script girl with the Fox Film Corporation n.d.; invitation to press showing of Gaumont-British Picture's A Cuckoo in the Nest, 1933; passenger lists for Cunard's RMS Olympic, 1935, North German Lloyd's Europa, 1933 and Bremen, 1931; travel diary relating to trips made to Europe, the United States and the Caribbean, 1970-1973; and Paramount Pictures Honour Roll Anniversary (vol. II, no. 1) souvenir publication, May 1927.
The material documenting Lewis's writings includes manuscripts of her articles and stories and printed copies of articles and stories published in various periodicals.
Included are photographs from Helen Lewis's early years in Hollywood, personal photographs of her family and friends, and photographs from her later years when she was recognized with an award ceremony at the CBC (1985).
