The Herman Nolte photograph collection consists of black-and-white negatives with accompanying prints depicting Herman Nolte's time stationed in northeastern China as a United States marine from approximately 1945 to 1946. Negatives were originally housed in envelopes with identifications written on them, presumably by Herman Nolte. The negatives were re-housed for preservation, with original housings scanned to preserve the identifications before being discarded. The original captions contain outdated or non-standard spellings of Chinese place names. The folders were titled using pinyin spellings of Chinese characters, with the spellings from the original captions included in the folder-level scope and contents notes.

Most of the images depict people in places in northeastern China. Some portraits of individuals are identified by name. Subjects include street scenes, including markets and street performers; infrastructure such as railroad stations, barges, bridges, and waterways; palace grounds in Beijing; leisure buildings such as country clubs and spas; and farms and mines. Included in the images are several photographs of members of the Marine Corps posing in groups, with equipment, or animals. Also included are images of members of the Chinese communist army in portraits, groups, or interacting or receiving training from Marines.