The Marion Helland papers date from 1890 to 2022 and measure 8.5 linear feet (23 containers). The collection is organized into five series: Biographical, Activism, Teaching, Publications, and Artifacts.

The collection includes a number of binders compiled by Diana Koppen on topics such as Helland’s schooling, family history, and activism. The binders typically include a variety of materials, such as newspaper clippings, photographs, correspondence, and ephemera. The contents of these binders have been kept together to preserve contextual relationships. Explanatory notes written by Koppen appear throughout the collection and have been retained for their informational content. Large sets of loose photographs have been arranged by subject as subseries within each topical series. Small sets of photographs of, e.g., students participating in a given lesson may be noted in a scope note attached to the file for that lesson.

The Biographical series (1890-2022) is comprised of documents relating to Helland’s family, education, career, and travels. The materials include photographs, yearbooks, coursework, correspondence, news clippings, resumes, press clippings, and personal ephemera. This series also includes a copy of a biography of Helland written by her nieces, Koppen and Pam Doocy-Curry, as well as notes, caption cards, and other documentation of an exhibit about Helland’s life curated by Koppen in Spencer, Iowa in 2022. Another binder titled “From Golden Valley, MN to Spencer, IA” documents Helland’s later years and family life, while the “Awards, Recognition, and Publications” binder includes Helland’s pedagogical writings and records of various honors she received. The Family subseries (1890-2013) begins with a binder on Helland’s parents Olaf and Margit, which includes immigration papers, family photographs, correspondence in Norwegian, news clippings, and ephemera. Helland’s Norwegian extended family is documented in records grouped by location in Norway or by surname. Photographs of Helland’s cousin Ardis and her paternal aunts and uncles (Reidar, Alfred, Sig, Ole, and Arthur) are also featured in this series.

The Activism series (1948-2011) documents Helland’s involvement in the civil rights movement and human rights organizations. Collected news clippings, photographs, pamphlets, newsletters, and correspondence document Helland’s participation in and the general history of the civil rights movement and organizations like the Freedom Schools, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and Teachers for Change. The correspondence in this series includes letters to volunteers and supporters from the Freedom Schools, the Southern Chrisitan Leadership Conference, Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK Jr.), and the Southern Poverty Law Center, as well as thank-you letters for Helland’s organizing. The series also includes a binder titled “What More Can I Do,” which documents Helland’s attempts to raise awareness about the civil rights movement in the Midwest, and materials on Helland’s later work with Minnesota human rights organizations. The slides in this series, some of which have been digitized, document Helland's volunteer work in Mississippi and the Resurrection City encampment in Washington, D.C. during the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968.

Helland’s teaching career is documented in the Teaching series (1946-2014), which consists of lesson plans, reports, curricular materials, teaching aids, and student work. Many of the lesson plans and curricula were created or compiled by Helland, either individually or as part of a team; the former are arranged in the Lesson plans subseries, and the latter in the Curricula and resources subseries. The Lesson plans subseries includes audio recordings and a written summary of a 1969 time capsule lesson, in which fifth graders predicted what they thought Minneapolis would be like in 2001 (note that the board associated with this lesson appears in the Artifacts series). The Curricula and resources subseries relates primarily to school districts in Minnesota where Helland taught, and also features selections from Helland’s collection of biographical and pedagogical resources on Martin Luther King Jr., Black history, and Native American history. The “Teaching” binder includes Helland’s teaching certificate, contracts, passport, and class photographs and yearbooks from schools where she taught. Photographs in this series include student photographs, a staff memory book, and photos of Helland instructing at an American Federation of Teachers training. The Teaching texts subseries includes books in which Helland’s students identified instances of bias in historical texts and other works she used regularly in the classroom.

The Publications series (1972-1980) consists of partial runs of the Black news and culture magazines Jet and Ebony Jr.

The Artifacts series (1969-2012) consists primarily of objects produced by organizations with which Helland was affiliated, such as buttons, pins, bookmarks, shirts, nametags, and other promotional items. The series also contains a napkin printed for Olaf Helland’s birthday, a cloth calendar, and Democratic memorabilia, including a yoyo and a Barbie doll produced for the 2000 Democratic National Convention. A board created by Helland’s students during a 1969 time capsule project completes the series.