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Series 1 contains almost all of the prints in the collection. The prints document Atkins' positions as a photographer for the Saturday Evening Post and the personal photographer to President Richard M. Nixon. Many of the negatives of the prints in the first subseries can be found in Series 2 and 3.

Series 2 contains 4x5" negatives created during Atkins's tenure as a photographer for the Saturday Evening Post. Subjects include American political figures, such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Alben W. Barkley, George Marshall, and Tom Connally; Washington, D.C., sites, such as the White House, the Library of Congress, and Howard University; and religious leaders, such as Ezra Taft Benson and Prophet Jones. Other subjects include American businessmen, military figures, and average citizens. Folder numbers refer to numbered "packets" containing multiple negatives of the same subject. Box 58 contains negatives other than 4x5" that could not be housed in the same containers. Some of these negatives are from the same stories and have the same packet numbering. Detailed caption descriptions for these packets can be found in Series 4. The dates following the titles refer to the story publication dates, and the dates in the scope notes refer to the dates that Atkins' took the photographs.

Series 3 contains 35mm negatives, 4x5" negatives, contact sheets, and slides that Atkins created while he worked for the Saturday Evening Post in the 1950s and 1960s as well as some images from work he did during World War II. Prints from these images can be found in Series 1, and there are some copies of negatives that are in Series 4.

Series 5 contains oversize mat photographs. Subjects include World War II in Europe, the Korean War, and scenes from Africa, India, and the Middle East. Also pictured are American political figures such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon. Other subjects include protests on the National Mall, landmarks in Washington, D.C. and New York City, coal miners, and Fidel Castro.