The Tejas Girl Scout Council papers represent over 50 years of tireless effort to initiate and maintain a Girl Scout program in Dallas, Texas and the surrounding counties. The collection is composed of seven series. The first series and smallest group of material consists of letters addressed to and collected by Mrs. Margaret Scruggs Caruth, one of the first Tejas Girl Scout Council members. However small, these letters give valuable insight into the politics involved when first establishing a nonprofit organization staffed almost solely by volunteers. Adding to this political atmosphere, a good friend of Mrs. Caruth's, Mrs. Lillian Dodge, wrote humorous letters to Mrs. Caruth concerning nominations to the National Board of Girl Scouts. Yet Mrs. Caruth's tour of Europe's Girl Guides Associations shows that the council's main concern was to bring the best possible Girl Scouting programs to their Girl Scouts.

Less colorful but certainly invaluable are the minutes of the meetings of the council that comprise series two. Of special interest are the Tejas Council's efforts to train their Girl Scouts in Wartime Defense during WWII and to improve the Negro Girl Scouting program in Dallas. The minutes also include extensive camp committee reports detailing the acquisition, development and maintenance of the area Girl Scout camps. Supplemental to the minutes are the financial records, including annual reports, payroll and account ledgers, and contribution journals, in series three. Although the minutes and financial records are incomplete, it is possible to trace the dynamic growth of the Tejas Girl Scout Council (formerly the Dallas Girl Scout Council) over the years.

The remainder of the collection is divided as follows: series four, printed material; series five, photographic material; series six, scrapbooks; and series seven, audio recordings. The bulk of the printed material consists of Girl Scout handbooks and training guides, camping guides, and activity guides for both the Girl Scout and the leader. There are numerous newsletters dating from 1930 to 1969 as well as an extensive amount of newspaper clippings, the majority being arranged by year. The photographic prints are arranged by subject within a decade and the slides are arranged by subject. Many of the photographs coincide with the newspaper clippings and programs found in the scrapbooks. The scrapbooks, however, are made up of more than newspaper clippings and programs. They contain personal letters, daily journals, photographs, and memorabilia that are vital to preserving the history of the Tejas Girl Scout Council. The 35 scrapbooks, ten of which were compiled by Mrs. Kay Jefferson, range in years from 1929 to 1976. The earliest scrapbooks (1930s) are devoted to Camp Kiwanis, while the focus in the 1940s is on Girl Scouting and WWII. The reel to reel tapes and the cassette tapes contain recordings of annual meetings (1967-1969 & 1972) and national conventions as well as speeches.

Although there are distinct chronological gaps in each of the series, the historian will find that every single year from 1922 to 1969 and then 1972 to 1979 are represented in at least one of the series, thus making the Tejas Girl Scout Collection an excellent source of information on the evolution of this important young women's organization in Dallas, Texas. The boxes are numbered 1-2, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 5-7, 8x-15x, and 16. An index is also available.