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Images consist mostly of portraits of the indigenous people in the Mexican states of Michoacán, Guerrero, Nayarit, Sinaloa, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Veracruz. The collection primarily contains images of Wikarika (Huichol) people, but includes images of the Purepecha (Tarasco), Guerrero Nahua, Chinantec [Chinantla], Zoque, Otomí (Otomi), Tzotzil Maya, Yoreme (Mayo) and Zapotec peoples.

This collection contains 180 black-and-white acetate negatives and 71 gelatin silver prints taken by American artist Hortense Ferne. The images depict scenes of everyday life in the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Puebla, Morales, Guerrero and the Federal District, as well as the Teotihuacán archaeological site. A few images of San Jose Mission and the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, are also present.

Photography taken by MAI staff photographer Carmelo Guadagno during a research project expedition with Lewis Krevolin on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation in March of 1973. The project focus was pottery making techniques in various Indigenous settlements across Mexico in support of the 1976-1977 exhibition "Traditional Pottery of Mexico."

This collection includes phtographic prints and negatives made by Edward H. Davis during his time working as a field collector for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. These include images made in Southern California, Mexico, and Arizona between 1903 and 1938 that document Native life among numerous Indigenous communities in those regions.