The DFMS archive on the American Church Institute (ACI) is largely focused on the years 1906 through 1967, although documentation on individual schools dates from 1867 (see AO-00-R0061-02-12). The collection represents a reasonably comprehensive record of ACI during its lifetime and, in most cases, a much briefer synopsis of the life of each of the individual schools, although student rosters and academic records are not present. The overall ACI administrative records consist of minutes, reports, legal and financial documents, correspondence, historical summaries, building plans, studies, surveys, publications, photographs, and ACIN's corporate seal. Records of the individual schools include copies of minutes of the boards of trustees, reports, correspondence, financial documents, institutional histories, personnel records, and publicity materials.

The papers of Charles Radford Lawrence and Margaret Morgan Lawrence document Charles’s activities as a sociologist, professor, civil rights activist, and President of the House of Deputies of The Episcopal Church. The archive contains lectures, sermons, addresses, correspondence, photographs, audio recordings, news clippings, and awards and honoraria from 1936 through 1986 with some earlier collected works and photographs. Margaret Lawrence’s work and research, which centered on the long-term effects of racism on the health of black families, is also featured in the collection.

The Stines Papers include correspondence, sermons, printed material, legal documents, and photographs that document Fr. Stines' ministerial work building multiracial and black Episcopal parishes, his promotion of racial equality in the South through the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity (ESCRU), and issues of racism and sexism in the Episcopal Church. Other personal interests and experience in ministry are also found in the archive.