The Harry Scherman Library served as the main library facility for the Mannes College of Music from 1965 to 2016, originating at Mannes’s 157 East 74th Street location, and later existing at 150 West 85th Street from 1984 to 2016. The Scherman Library, over the course of its history, stored various music-related items of ephemera which constitute this collection.

This collection consists of news clipping files and scrapbooks that document Mannes from its founding through the early 1990s. The scrapbooks, which cover the school's early history through the 1960s, contain concert programs, advertisements, and news articles. Other scrapbooks, some from before the establishment of Mannes, document the activities of the school's founders, David and Clara Mannes, in their work as musicians and educators.

This collection contains several thousand photographs relating to the Mannes School of Music, from its early days in the 1910s through the 2000s, primarily representing the 1970s through the 1990s. Included are images of Mannes buildings; performances put on by different Mannes ensembles; administrative and academic events; the Mannes family; and Mannes personnel, including students, faculty, alumni, and guest artists and performers.