The collection consists of 2,532 individual pieces of sheet music, sheet music lithographs, and music related broadsides from the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Accompanying the sheet music are eighty files of correspondence, ephemera, and photocopies of the collection. In all, the collection is arranged into forty-two distinct series.

The forty-two series are arranged by subject, by lithographic images, by geographical region, and by the era of origin. The collection's strengths lie in several areas. Among these are the collections of imprints dating before 1840, the 19th century imprints from the Northeast United States, and the mid-19th century imprints from California and Hawaii. Of particular note in this collection are the imprints of war-related themes, which scan American history from the arrival of General LaFayette, to Confederate imprints printed during the Civil War and continuing through the first and second World Wars. Of equal importance is the representation of daily life in the 19th century and the extensive collection of early-American lithography which this collection contains.

The finding aid for the Fielder Sheet Music Collection essays to document all available information about the individual pieces of sheet music. To enable the researcher easier access to the collection, the finding aid can be searched by title, composer, arranger, performer, lithographer, by city of origin and publishing house, as well as by date of origin.