The Mary Reynolds Babcock Papers document the activities and interests of Mary Reynolds Babcock. The bulk of the material consists of articles and clippings from journals, magazines, and newspapers dating to the 1930s and 1940s. The collection also includes bulletins and newsletters, colored prints, correspondence, invoices and receipts, journals, magazines, maps, photographs and negatives, sketches, and telegrams. Subjects covered include American art, flower arranging, home design and furnishing, R. J. and Katharine Smith Reynolds, and William N. Reynolds (1863-1941). The papers also provide a look at the consumer culture developing in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s – items to improve your home and/or life and the advertisements that highlighted them.

The collection is valuable for a better understanding of one of the most significant individuals in the history of the Reynolda Estate. Babcock lived at Reynolda both as a child, while her parents created it, and as an adult overseeing the expansion and remodeling of the house. Moreover, she and her husband were key figures in Wake Forest University's relocation to Winston-Salem in the 1940s and 1950s. Though the papers focus less on Reynolda and more on Babcock herself, understanding one of its key figures helps illuminate the estate’s history.