In 1996, archives staff transferred the negatives out of their original housing into archival envelopes. It is presumed that archives staff transcribed the original negative titles onto the envelopes, which we maintained in this finding aid created in 2020. We did not verify the contents against the envelope titles for accuracy, but in some cases, archives staff did add additional description in brackets to enhance discoverability. It is important to note that although Lester died in 1955, some of the negatives are dated through 1957. It is unclear if this was a transcription error, or if several photographs created by someone else were added to the collection at some point.

Some negative titles contained offensive terminology describing race. Language that comes from the original archival material can provide information about the people who created it, so the original titles were left on the envelopes. However, in order to create more respectful and inclusive description, the language was updated in the finding aid. Any modifications by archives staff appear in brackets.