The photographs date from the 1890s (pictures of or taken by Douglas' parents and family portraits) . There is a large assortment of childhood pictures of Gilean, her schoolmates etc. Douglas started taking photographs as a child and by her early twenties was an avid and accomplished photographer. Photographs taken by her during the 1920s through the early 1940s are for the most part found in the albums . Pictures taken in the 1950s and 1960s fall into 3 main categories : black & white photos of the B.C. coast taken during her trips on the boats of the Columbia Coast Mission, color and black & white photos of communities in B.C. and eastern
Canada taken during her trips for the W .I., and pictures of Channel Rock. Unfortunately the slides and pictures taken on WI trips are unlabelled and for the most part can only be identified as to general location and date. During the 1970s and 1980s the photographs are almost exclusively of Channel Rock. A representative of these in included in this series ; others may be found at the Cortes Museum and Archives.

Aside from Douglas' own photographs, there are several interesting groups of other people's pictures in this collection: an album with pictures of overseas service during World War I, a group of labelled photographs of Baffin Island, Pangirtung, etc . taken in 1926/27 by an RCMP officer, and photographs from a trip around the world on a freighter in 1919.

Series consists of photographs taken by Douglas (both personal and those used to illustrate magazine and newspaper articles) ; family photographs, both portraits and snapshots ; photographs given to Douglas by friends and correspondents; photographs acquired from archival and commercial sources for use as illustrations ; slides and negatives; film strips.