This series documents the majority of Totman's formal educational experiences. From his first year at high school to later scholarly research, Totman was constantly accumulating information. The materials relating to his high school, Arms Academy, show not only a general curriculum, familiar to almost any contemporary American high school student, but also the roots of Totman's future professional writing career. Examples of early writings include reports for English I through IV, U.S. History, and French; and notes for Biology, Chemistry and Plane Geometry classes. While his pursuit of a baccalaureate degree at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst started with a concentration in horticulture, it ended with a degree in history. The primary catalyst for this switch was a United States Armed Forces Institute (USAFI) course entitled "Survey of the Far East," taken while Totman served in the U.S. Army from 1953-1956. Two essays written during the 1956-1957 school year back at UMass show further development in his writing style, as well as a firm commitment to the study of history as a profession.

His scholarship further improved at Harvard University, as evidenced by two seminar papers in the collection as well as the culmination of his pre-professional education, his doctoral dissertation. Totman's research for his thesis led him to Shinkoganei, Japan. Materials from his first (Shinkoganei) and subsequent (Tanashi-shi, Kichijoji, and Mitaka-shi) scholarly research trips to Japan showcase the trials and tribulations of a professional scholar. Also included are documents relating to his decades-long research into forestry and the natural environment, as well as an extensive selection of sketched and pieced maps and Totman's research notecard collection.

The bulk of this series constitutes Totman's teaching career. Documents relating to his major teaching posts at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Northwestern University, and Yale University contain individual class lecture notes and test materials on topics in Japanese history. These are mostly organized by class number. Where the class number is inconsistent, the course title is used. Totman's guest teaching posts at the University of Chicago, the Kyoto Center for Japanese Studies, and Stanford University are organized in the same manner and offer further insight into his methods and topics.

In addition to teaching, Totman served his profession in an administrative role at the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), in addition to other professional groups. These materials, which include minutes of meetings, correspondence with other members, and collective proposals, show the scope and diversity of the scholars of Asian Studies, as well as indications of scholarly specialization. Guest lectures were another important part of Totman's career, and this series contains papers from his trips to deliver talks and participate on panels. Also included is a wealth of correspondence with Japan specialists, colleagues, and students.

A prolific writer born into a family of prolific writers, Totman seemingly never put down the pen. This series is comprised of a majority of Totman's written works, and is divided into published and unpublished sections. The bulk of the published works relate to Totman's influential monographs. This section explores virtually every stage of publishing a book from working drafts to evaluations by peers, correspondence with publishers, and even to royalty and sales statements. Other published works include Totman's reviews of academic books, encyclopedia entries, journal articles, book chapters, and newspaper articles.

The highlight of the unpublished section is the collection of letters, original and transcribed, the bulk of which were penned by Totman during his military service in Korea and Japan. The letters from Korea show a unique glimpse of reconstruction efforts, as Totman reached the peninsula less than a year after an armistice ended the Korean War. The letters from Japan are restricted until 2015, however, recollections of that time period can be found in the unpublished section as well, in a work entitled , which summarizes the childhoods and lives of both Conrad and Michiko Totman and their family. Another work, dubbed in the 1940s, explores aspects of Totman's childhood in further detail. Other unpublished works include essays, abandoned projects such as a fictionalized narrative of Japanese history, and unused fragments of his Ph.D. thesis. Early scholarly writings, such as term papers and reports, can be found in Series 1: Education.

This series contains genealogical materials relating to the Totmans and western Massachusetts. Conrad Totman's cousin Alice Totman Hawks researched and collected the bulk of the documents, which largely pertain to Totman family genealogy. In 1936, Alice created a family newsletter, eventually known as . In each installment, Alice presented her family research along with substantial and diverse contributions from other members of the family from all over the United States. featured letters written to Alice for publication, which kept the entire clan up to date. These letters, which initially served as current news, are now a rich historical record, documenting the Great Hurricane of 1938 and Lt. Clayton Totman's experiences with the U.S. Marines in Shanghai in 1937 during the Japanese invasion of China. Alice solicited childhood recollections from family members, including J. Monroe Totman, who in his own words describes many aspects of his life in Massachusetts and South Dakota from 1850 to 1945.

In addition to personal anecdotes, Totman clan members were encouraged to submit historic letters and transcriptions to share in . Some of these letters include Rev. Harvey Totman's Diaries from 1833 to 1868, and Eli Totman's letters home from 1862 to 1863. Harvey was a traveling priest in New York State, and Eli was in the 25th Wisconsin Regiment and was witness to parts of the Dakota War (a.k.a. Sioux Uprising) of 1862 in Minnesota. was discontinued in 1942, but was resurrected by Betty Jo (Totman) Jensen in 1971. These later issues, which have similar content, are also included in the collection. The remainder of the genealogical materials contain Alice Totman Hawks' notes, drafts, subject and alphabetical files. In addition, Conrad Totman's transcription of the letters and diaries of his paternal grandparents, his wife Michiko's letters to Totman family members, and Joshua Totman's Economics notebook from circa 1800, are also significant parts of this series.

This series contains a multitude of prints, slides, and negatives documenting the bulk of the life of Conrad Totman on film. The photographs are organized into four subseries by location: Korea (1954-1955), Japan (1954-1993), United States (1936-2000), and World Trip (1963). As with much of this collection, save for a few changes, the series was organized by Totman himself. All of the subseries-level, group-level, and item level descriptions are written by Totman. The Korea, Japan, and World Trip subseries are divided into groups reflecting individual rolls of film and are ordered chronologically. Each group number consists of a letter (K for Korea, J for Japan, etc.) followed by a number (54 for 1954, or 67-68 for 1967-1968, etc.) and sometimes followed by another letter signifying order within a timeframe (such as K54a, K54b, K54c, etc). The United States subseries is divided into two parts: groups reflecting spans of time (which follow the same numbering rules as above), and groups reflecting various subjects (which substitute the group number for the subject title, such as "Amherst" or "Conway"). Several of these United States photograph groups overlap intellectually.

All of the photographs in the collection are housed by format. The beginning and end of each group of prints is marked with a "Begin J81g" and "End J81g" tag with the corresponding photograph. The negatives are housed and marked in relatively the same way. Where negatives are available, individual photograph numbers refer to the corresponding manufacturer's number on their respective negatives. For example, the print J63k2 is the same picture as negative 2 in group J63k. However, this is not the case for United States negatives. The slides are housed, like the prints and negatives, in order of subseries, then group, but are marked with a single manila tag for each group (such as J69d). There are no slides for the World Trip subseries. When searching for a photograph, one should look for a print or slide first and then check negatives second.

Over the course of their lives, Michiko and Conrad Totman accumulated diverse items relating to Japan. Especially during their early visits to Japan, Michiko and Conrad collected bits and pieces of art. They also received some from the Ikegami family, including what are probably the most valuable items. The collection includes ephemera from their travels about Japan. There is a delightful collection of prints by Japanese children that Michiko acquired while working as a bilingual teacher in Evanston, Illinois. The largest body of art is nanga-style paintings by Oyama Shinzo. There also are works by other artists, mostly kakemono and shikishi, but one byobu. Then there are diverse other things, including a stash of kokeshi and other dolls and an intricate "Boy's Day" display of toy armor.

This series contains diplomas and documents relating to the Totman family, as well as undated pieces of Japanese artwork, jewelry, and artifacts that Conrad and Michiko Totman collected during their travels. Many of the items are of local, western Massachusetts interest.

Michiko Ikegami Totman arrived in America in 1956. She met Conrad while serving as secretary with the U.S. Army in Japan, and moved to Amherst, Massachusetts where she worked on an undergraduate degree in sociology before marrying Conrad in 1958. The bulk of the Michiko Totman Papers are an extensive Ikegami family correspondence between Japan and America, especially during the early years of Michiko's relocation. Michiko's mother, Hiroko Kazumi Ikegami, sent Michiko and Conrad hundreds of letters, written in Japanese, chronicling life back home until her death in 1988. Michiko's three sisters (Yasuko Ogawa, Kyoko Kikuchi, Kazuko Makita) also corresponded, as did classmates from primary school. Some letters concerning the resolution of her parents' estate in the late 1980s are restricted until 2015.

The collection also contains papers from Michiko's education and professional endeavors, including her work as an ESL specialist for the Evanstown public schools. In 1968, Michiko became a naturalized U.S. citizen in Chicago; letters of congratulations are included. Conrad and Michiko both prided themselves on organization and thrift; the collection of their financial materials provides an insight into their spending, saving, and planning. Later in life, Michiko persued her great love of traveling, usually with organized groups of friends. The collection includes travel itineraries, receipts, brochures, and travel diaries from her journeys. A reference chronology of Michiko's major life events, compiled by Michiko and Conrad, is included, as are some of their careful notes explaining components of the collection.