Ranging in date from 1904 to 1995, the Portland Rose Festival Association Photographs Collection consists of 5,077 color and black-and-white photographic prints, 257 black-and-white negatives, 16 color negatives, 16 lantern slides, 427 mounted and unmounted positive color transparencies, and a small amount of printed materials created and collected by Portland, Oregon's Rose Festival Association, a non-profit group that organizes and finances the city's annual Rose Festival. A number of well-known Portland-area photographers and photography studios are represented in the collection, including Allen J. De Lay, David Kennerly, Arthur M. Prentiss, Kiser Studios, Photo-art Commercial Studios, Walters Studio, Gladys Gilbert Studio, and Marquam Photo Studio.

The bulk of images document the festival's Rose Courts, Rose Queens, and Grand Floral Parades from the 1920s through the 1990s, but the collection additionally includes images of the Waterfront Fun Center, association staff and directors, the Royal Rosarians, Fleet Week, the children's parade, the Merrykhana Parade, and city and state political officials such as Oregon governor and Portland mayor Neil Goldschmidt and Portland mayor Vera Katz. Coverage of the festival's queens is especially extensive; queens from Carrie Chamberlain, the first Rose Queen, through the queens of the early 1990s are shown at parades, portrait sittings, coronations, and promotional events.