This collection focuses primarily on Ward's missionary experience, especially her service in the Belgian Congo during the 1930s and 1940s. The two five-year diaries and most of the correspondence, as well as many photographs, are from these years in Africa.

A book describing these years, "In the Footsteps of the Elephant", was privately published in 1992. It contains three chapters. One is a thirty-nine day diary of a journey in Africa; another contains excerpts from letters to her family and friends, the originals of which are included in this collection; and the third chapter is a report about the educational program in the Belgian Congo, a paper she submitted for a summer school course at the University of Colorado in 1945.

Biographical information, vital papers, photographic portraits and snapshots of Ward, as well as genealogical information and family photographs comprise the remainder of the collection.

Artifacts from Africa have been given to Culver-Stockton University in Canton, Missouri along with black and white photos of her missionary work. Her large collection of color slides of Africa and the photo albums of her travels have been given to Red Oak Community Media Center.