The collection documents the academic work and education of Sister Jane P. Freeland, who was a nun, lover of music, and a medieval scholar recognized worldwide as the translator of medieval religious works never before available in English. The vast majority of the items are drafts of her translations and notebooks full of her jottings. She particularly loved medieval songs and hymns of Abelard.

The collections also contains personal material including correspondence with her home community of Saint John the Baptist (which she frequently referred to as "Mendham" in her letters), with the Bodleian Library, to Wellesley College, to her family and friends, to Cistercian Publications and other journal editors, to humane societies and newspapers about animal rights, and her superiors at Saint John The Baptist. She left St. John the Baptist in the 1980s, according to the Globe Newspaper Company, "because her superiors there felt it was more appropriate for her to contemplate what she already knew than to learn more." Included in the collection is her resignation letter from St. John the Baptist.

In approximately 1985, during her separation from St. John the Baptist, she corresponded with members of the Grace Episcopal Church (referred to as "GEC" and "Clewer" interchangeably in the finding aid), a convent in which she found more comfort. Her correspondence indicates that she tried to be transferred to GEC from St. John the Baptist.

The later part of the collection contains personal memorabilia such as newsletters, excerpts from literature, postcards, holiday cards, worship schedules, prayer lists, historical pamphlets, cartoons, sheet music of hymns, quotes, sermon notes, monastic rules, issues of the Hamphsire Life Magazine, obituary newspaper clippings, photographs, and information sheets.