The collection consists of the book "Sparrow Tales: Memories from the Graduates" compiled by Eleanor Clapp Smith and Gloria Smith Bouterse and published in 1987. It is a compilation of personal stories, newspaper clippings, and photographs of the nurses that graduated from the Edward W. Sparrow Hospital School of Nursing in Lansing, Michigan. The book covers the first graduating class of 1899 to its final graduating class of 1961. In 1961, the School closed its doors to students but the Alumnae Council is still active, voting in 1985 to proceed with a memories project, of which this book is the final product.