The bulk of the Trovillion Private Press Collection located in Herrin, Illinois consists of the correspondence of owner Hal Trovillion and the manuscripts, galley proofs, and unbound signatures of many titles that he published jointly with his wife Violet. There is a relatively complete collection of ephemera issued by the press including Christmas cards, announcements, and booklists. The collection also contains printed material Trovillion collected from other private presses (some of which remains unsorted) and several boxes of type, paper samples, cloth samples, and typeface and binding literature. The extensive correspondence in the collection contains many letters to and from artists and illustrators. Notable among them are Dan Byrne Jones, Roscoe Misselhorn, Mathias Noheimer, Margaret Ely Webb, and the well-known type designer Frederick Goudy.  Also found with the Press material are miscellaneous travel notes, a variety of political items, scrapbooks, and assorted memorabilia. Among these is a folder of material relating to violence and corruption in Herrin, a box of material related to the Herrin State Savings Bank, and one of Trovillion's business records.

In addition, the collection includes one box of correspondence, manuscripts, and memorabilia of Hal Trovillion's sister, Mae Trovillion Smith (1890-1957). Mae Smith was a member of the English faculty at Southern Illinois University from 1919 to 1931 and from 1941 to 1957. She was the author of several books about pets. The correspondence preserved here is chiefly from fellow animal lovers and her literary acquaintances, including New Yorker writer Robert Lewis Taylor and Helen Van Loon, wife of popular historian and journalist Hendrik Van Loon.