Dr. Schowe was a prolific correspondent, and the bulk of the material in this collection consists of letters and memoranda he wrote while at OSD and MSSD. This includes raw notes and drafts and finished products, as well as some memoranda that were written but never sent. The main topics of his writing are library services (especially services related to audiovisual items), deaf education, and school policies. Since Dr. Schowe was at MSSD almost from its opening, his writings offer some interesting insights on MSSD education and student life during the early years of the institution.

This collection also includes a number of papers Dr. Schowe wrote while studying for his advanced degrees at OSU, including term papers for courses in education, psychology, communication, and related subjects. Also present are a draft of his master’s thesis and a clean copy of his Ph.D. dissertation.

Dr. Schowe had a close relationship with his father, the labor economist Benjamin M. Schowe, Sr., and this collection includes an extensive correspondence between the two of them. It also includes the full texts of two books by Schowe Sr., Identity Crisis in Deafness and The Art of Being Deaf (the latter unpublished).