The National Council for Preservation Education records contains information on the foundation of the organization, organizational operations, challenges and awards, and collaborations with other historic preservation individuals, groups and organizations, and are a significant contribution to the study of preservation education organizations. The materials contain items created and accumulated NCPE since its incorporation (1985) through 2010. The collection is rich in evidential, legal, intrinsic and informational value and dates from 1985 to 2010, with the bulk of materials dating from 1992 to 2004.

The first three series of this collection reflect organizational operations, management, and conference facilitation. The Administrative series contains annual, business and Executive agendas and minutes, along with documents related to certification standards, articles of incorporation, bylaws, directories of member programs, membership lists, nominations for membership, historic preservation award application materials, student internships, mailing lists, special reports, submitted student essays, surveys of academic historic preservation programs and a small amount of unidentified notes -- most of which are hand written. The Conferences series contains materials/packets created and distributed to conference attendees. The Correspondences series is one of the largest series in the collection and contains emails and letters related to administrative projects, operations, and organizational challenges; along with the creation of the historic preservation program directory (The Great Chart), the development and maintenance of the NCPE website, publishing of NCPE special reports, student internship programs, the creation and awarding of the James Marston Fitch Award, historic preservation advocacy and education, sustainability, organizational outreach and conference organization/facilitation. The Financials series (closed to researchers) contain financial statements, ledgers, dues lists, Curriculum Vitas, accounts payable/receivable, investment portfolios and membership payments.

The next four series reflect the historic preservation activities and efforts of the organization through time. The series Organizations contains publications from related/associated/collaborative historic preservation groups and organizations. The Outreach series contains items that document NCPE public interactive activities through newspaper/magazine clippings and website activity logs. The Publications series contains a sampling of hardcopy NCPE publications, and the Visual Materials series contains a small amount of images and postcards from various NCPE conference host locations. The collection does not contain complete runs of conference materials, or a full representation of organizational correspondences, agendas/minutes and financial records.