This collection is largely comprised of Gagnon’s research materials for Transition to an Industrial South. There are also materials related to railroads; these have been made into a separate series because of the copies of Gagnon’s articles about railroads being included. Otherwise, the railroad-related materials could be interfiled with the rest, as the subject matter obviously overlaps. The Southern Mutual microfilming project is a separate series because of the unique nature of the project and that more of the materials relate to the project itself instead of the insurance company. Similarly, materials that relate to Gagnon’s career, both with regard to teaching and publishing, are in the first series.

The collection includes only a small amount of original material. Many photocopies of historic documents have been deaccessioned or were placed in vertical files. Some photocopies have been placed in this collection because they are rare; others, because they are annotated by Gagnon or accompany Gagnon’s notes and documentation of sources.

Some of Gagnon’s copies of complete books, dissertations, and other monographs have been included, again due to their rarity: they are either unavailable in the Heritage Room or only available on microfilm. These items conclude the Transition to an Industrial South portion of the collection and are found in boxes 5, 6, and 7, with the exception of the Athens First Presbyterian Church’s session minutes, filed with other church-related materials.

In addition, an unpublished book, Harold Wilson’s A Very Peculiar Institution: Cotton Manufacturing in the Slave States, is included. Wilson published a related work, Confederate Industry: Manufacturers and Quartermasters in the Civil War, in 2014.