The collection consists of records pertaining to the Tanner Lumber Company and its predecessor, the Dozier Company, and those pertaining to the president of the company, J.B. Tanner, and his family. Included in the business series are checks and ledgers, blank Tanner Lumber Co. forms, and ephemera, such as stickers, postcards, and aprons. The records in the Dozier Company subseries include pricing quotations and receipts from various companies, as well as correspondence documenting business operations. Of particular note are letters from 1931 regarding contract bids for Hirsch Hall and Brown Hall at the University of Georgia. Also within the business series are records from Athens Market Inc. The Athens Market subseries consists largely of checks from The Citizens and Southern Bank, as well as correspondence documenting farming operations, shipment of products, and contracts for local farmers.

The second series consists of documents belonging to Walterette Arwood, J.B. Tanner’s wife, and her sister, Katherine Arwood, as well as press clippings and photographs of Jessie J. Mize, the second aunt of JoNan Ritchie-Tanner, J.B. Tanner Jr.’s wife. There are also commencement programs belonging to Frank Telford Ritchie Jr. and Horace Bonar Ritchie Jr., the father and uncle of JoNan Ritchie-Tanner, respectively, and one belonging to J.B. Tanner Jr.’s daughter. Also included are a cookbook in which a recipe from JoNan Ritchie-Tanner is featured, and multiple Athens High School reunion booklets in which J.B. Tanner Jr. and JoNan Ritchie-Tanner are featured.