Rusty Williams was a comedian who worked in the vaudeville circuit for 38 years, from the 1910s to 1950. In that time, he worked in tent shows, traveling shows and on some of the major vaudeville stages of his day, doing comedy routines, singing and performing both in whiteface and blackface and as a clown.

The bulk of the collections comprises two types of materials: photographs of Rusty Williams and the people he worked with in Vaudeville, and handstitched scripts that are either typewritten or handwritten. The collection also contains a small number of newspaper clippings, handbills and theater programs.