This collection contains a variety of images with no overall purpose other than the additional documentation of Grand Rapids and West Michigan views, or the re-creation of an existing image in a different form. Included are military images from the Civil War, Mexican War and World War II eras. Of note are the images of Grand Rapids people, scenes from Ada and Cascade and a series of 1920s-era billboards.

There is no documentation of the source of the image, and often none of the contents from the source it was taken. This means that while it is generally presumed that most of these images are probably in the public domain, there is little information other than the visual clues to detect this. Also, there is no cross reference back to the source from which the image was captured, to find out more information about the image or the original creator of the image, or the context of its use in a publication. Where source information has been discovered or is known from research or knowledge of the GRPL archival collections, a reference may now have been added with the description of the image. However, this may not reference the specific object from which the copy image was created.