This collection comprises scrapbooks, photographs, typescripts, clippings, miscellaneous material and a trophy from Dorothy C. Putnam and Lois Mercer. Each of the scrapbooks includes photographs, clippings, correspondence, notes and miscellaneous typescripts documenting Putnam and Mercer's lives from the 1910s through the mid-1980s. Materials document Putnam's ancestry; her career as the first licensed female chauffeur and mechanic in California and her subsequent service as an Air Force lieutenant; her participation in driving contests; Mercer's contribution to ONE, Inc.; her involvement in the Republican Party; their shared community activism; and their 50-year partnership, which began in Los Angeles in the 1930s. Also included is a trophy Putnam won in the Ladies Driving Contest organized by the Motor Car Dealers Association of Los Angeles in 1922.

Note: Scrapbooks should be handled with care as the glue holding the photographs to the pages has become brittle and many of the photographs are loose.