Lickley's work and inventions were directed toward the improvement of railroad locomotives. Included in the papers are blueprints, U.S. Patent Office papers and related correspondence, and interoffice correspondence and machine specifications from the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company.

The collection also includes a mimeographed history of Wright Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, written by Lickley in 1935; a mimeographed letter (May 12, 1938) describing the Potawatomi Indians in Hillsdale County; and pamphlets concerning the St. Louis Exposition, 1904.

Also, the collection contains images from the civil war in Georgia and Tennessee and of the 9th Michigan Infantry Regiment. These have been scanned and placed online at http://civilwar.archives.msu.edu/collection/7-1C-A/ralph-m-lickley/.