The collection consists mainly of correspondence between William King Prior and his wife Helen while he was serving in World War II and she was home in Jefferson City, Missouri. Also included in the last two folders are a history of the Prior family, several photographs, and programs. The collection also includes a packet of translated emails between Nikolaus Messmer and Prince Maximilian of Germany. Apparently, Prior had taken some family heirloom postcards from a castle in Germany that his company lived in during the war. Prior’s niece, Helen Backer, wanted to return the postcards to the Prince and his family. She enlisted the help of a neighbor who spoke German and eventually sent the cards to the Prince along with several of Prior’s original letters describing the castle and several German towns for the castle’s archives. In place of these originals in the collection, there are now photocopies.