Series 1 contains a large and diverse group of records that span Nancye Kent Perry's life. It includes material about Nancye Perry's family and early life, her employment as a scientist and her activities as a book-collector, genealogical researcher and writer, as well as many items of correspondence.

The largest single group of records in Series 1 consists of a set of Nancye Perry's daily diaries that span the period 1928 to 2007. Nancye Perry's diaries from 1938-1939 and from 1946-1950, periods when she was travelling or living overseas, are especially detailed and descriptive (note that Series 1 also contains other files about the Perry family's overseas trip made in 1938-1939, in addition to Nancye Perry's diaries). Additionally, Series 1 contains small numbers of diaries and address books created by Pauline Kent, Nancye's sister, by Enid Kent, her mother, and by Harold Leahy, her uncle.

Series 1 contains a varied set of records of Nancye Kent and Warren Perrys' wedding. Nancye and Warren were married on Saturday the 16th of November, 1957, at St Philip's Anglican Church in Church Hill, Sydney.

Series 1 holds digital and analogue copies of voice recordings made by Nancye Kent and Pauline Kent in 1947 and 1949. The sisters recorded these brief personal greetings to send home to Enid and Palmer Kent, their parents, in Sydney.

Series 1 also contains a small number of family records that predate Nancye Perry's birth, such as a group of files about Enid and Palmer Kents' early motoring experiences, including a 9,600 mile reliability trial around Australia in 1908 in which Palmer Kent participated.

Restrictions apply to certain records in Series 1. Researchers interested in viewing these records should consult the staff at the State Library of Victoria.

Researchers interested in the records in this series may also wish to view MS 13993, which contains further records created by Nancye Perry (24 boxes). For more information, enquire with the staff at the State Library of Victoria.

Series 2 contains notebooks, printed notes and other records from Nancye Kent Perry's schooling and university education.

From Abbotsleigh Anglican School in Sydney there are notebooks, mostly in zoology, as well as two books of sketches and paintings, a prefect's badge and copies of The Weaver, the school journal.

From the University of Sydney there are notes and notebooks in zoology, botany, biochemistry, entomology, etc, records regarding an essay on the subject of 'Entoptic Phenomena', and a copy of 'The Magazine of the Women's College'.

From Firbank Church of England Girls' Grammar School in Melbourne there are copies of The Firbank Log, the school journal.

Researchers interested in the records in this series may also wish to view MS 13993, which contains further records created by Nancye Perry (24 boxes). For more information, enquire with the staff at the State Library of Victoria.

Series 3 contains assorted records of and about Nancye Kent Perry's career as an entomologist. The records include correspondence, reports, index cards, notes, papers and draft papers, field notebooks, photographs, memoranda, publications and items of equipment.

The main subject matter of the records in this series is the Sirex woodwasp, a subject on which Nancye Perry carried out research at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Commonwealth Health Department's Plant Quarantine Division. The Sirex woodwasp looks to have been the subject of an unsubmitted thesis written by Nancye Perry. This thesis, along with related records, is extant in Series 3.

Other research projects and subjects documented in Series 3 include the Murray Valley Encephalitis outbreak and the Hylotrupes bajulus L. (House Longhorn Borer beetle). Series 3 also contains correspondence with Alfred Dunbavin Butcher, Director of the Fisheries and Wildlife Branch of the Victorian Chief Secretary's Department, dated 1956.

Researchers interested in the records in this series may also wish to view MS 13993, which contains further records created by Nancye Perry (24 boxes). For more information, enquire with the staff at the State Library of Victoria.

Series 4 contains extensive records of Nancye Kent Perry's investments in the stock market. Nancye Perry was taught how to trade shares during the 1930s by her father, Palmer Kent. Nancye became independently wealthy as a result of her investments. The bulk of the records in Series 4 cover the period 1960-2000, and there is also one file of Palmer Kent's dating from the 1880s.

Records in Series 4 include financial statements, portfolio valuations, share certificates, receipts, share plans and letters of offer in respect to Nancye Perry's share portfolio and transactions. They also include data gathered and received regarding the commercial performance of assorted companies, including research reports, news clippings and newsletters. Records of note include a set of nine meticulous and detailed investment registers maintained by Nancye Perry over the period 1955 to 2006 (see Inventory Items PERR00733, PERR00734, PERR00735, PERR00736, PERR00737, PERR00738, PERR00910, PERR00911 and PERR00912.)

In addition, Series 4 contains a small quantity of financial records on other subjects such as real estate and income tax.

Researchers interested in the records in this series may also wish to view MS 13993, which contains further records created by Nancye Perry (24 boxes). For more information, enquire with the staff at the State Library of Victoria.

Series 5 contains a small quantity of material pertaining to Nancye Kent Perry's diverse writing projects and activities. It includes items of correspondence, which she wrote from a young age, as well as poetry.

Many of the records in Series 5 date from Nancye Perry's early life, in particular the 1930s-1950s period. There are also three files of working papers from Child of the 'Twenties: Girl of the 'Thirties, Nancye Perry's memoir of her youth, which was published in 2001.

Series 6 holds assorted photographic material that dates from throughout Nancye Kent Perry's life. This series includes many photographs and portraits of Nancye Perry. It also contains pictures of Nancye Perry's family and friends, artwork and art exhibitions, dogs, and other subjects, including photographs Nancye took while travelling in Australia and overseas.

Series 6 contains many studio portraits of Nancye Perry, including photographs taken at her graduation as a Bachelor of Science in 1945, at her presentation at Court in London in 1949 and at her wedding in 1957.

Series 6 includes photograph albums, framed and loose prints, negatives and slides.

The photographic records of Nancye Perry's that were archivally processed in 2012 were rehoused in mylar sleeves for preservation reasons. The packets in which they were originally enclosed were retained in the relevant inventory item.

Series 7 contains eleven medical records for Nancye Kent Perry, covering a range of dates from throughout her life.

Series 8 contains a diverse set of publications, as well as registers of books. It includes many publications Nancye Kent Perry received as gifts or prizes in her youth.

Series 8 contains three registers of Nancye Perry's book collection, which document the publications Nancye Perry bought and sold over many years. Nancye Perry looks to have begun collecting books in earnest in 1963, and she continued doing so until 2006. Her areas of specialisation included Australiana, ships, shipwrecks and the sea. Nancye Perry sold her book collection at auction at Australian Book Auctions in March 2010. Series 8 contains the auction catalogue as well as correspondence pertaining to this auction.

Series 8 also includes five copies of Biblionews and Australian Notes and Queries, A Journal for Book Collectors, the quarterly journal of the Book Collectors' Society of Australia. Other records of Nancye Perry's participation in the activities of the Victorian Branch of the Book Collectors' Society of Australia, including correspondence, photographs and newsletters, can be found in this series and also in Series 1 and Series 6 of the Perry Guide.

Other records in Series 8 include five copies of 'Dry Rot', the magazine of the Forest Products Research Laboratory in Great Britain. Nancye Perry worked at the Forest Products Research Laboratory from 1946 to 1950.

Readers interested in Nancye Perry's book collecting activities should also check Series 1 Biographical - Personal.

Series 9 contains records of Nancye Kent Perry's activities as a painter. This series contains artworks by Nancye Perry, as well as catalogues, invitations, news clippings and other papers from the exhibition and sale of her works, and files about art courses she attended.

Series 9 also includes records about exhibitions of artwork done by other artists, and about the auctioning of artworks that Nancye Perry had purchased.

Series 9 includes a record of significance to the history of the state of Victoria and colonial Australia. The framed etching entitled 'The Birthplace of Melbourne - Cornwall Hotel, Launceston - 6/50' depicts a Tasmanian hotel purported to be the place where the decision was made to colonise Port Philip. For this etching and the accompanying caption and document, see Inventory Items PERR00902 and PERR00903.

Researchers interested in the records in this series may also wish to view MS 13993, which contains further records created by Nancye Perry (24 boxes). For more information, enquire with the staff at the State Library of Victoria.

Series 10 contains eleven records on assorted aspects of Nancye Kent Perry's activities as a dog obedience trainer. The records in Series 10 principally concern 'Prywie Ambrose', Nancye Perry's beagle.

Series 11 holds records of donations made by Nancye Kent Perry, chiefly to heritage organisations such as the State Library of Victoria and the National Library of Australia. Most of these donations were financial. There is also a file documenting her donation of a painting by Robert Beauchamp to the New South Wales' State Library (see Inventory Item PERR00412 - Donation 1962 - Quamby Bluff by Robert Beauchamp.)

This series also contains files about the collection and preservation of Nancye Perry's own records. This includes correspondence with the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, forerunner of the eScholarship Research Centre, whose staff carried out the archival processing of the records of Nancye Perrye's documented in this guide.

Series 12 contains a large quantity of records of Nancye Kent Perry's research into the history of her family. Her research focused on the Ashenden and Leahy family lines, on her mother's side, and the Kents, on her father's side.

Records in Series 12 include correspondence, photographs, wills, probates, obituaries, newspaper clippings, family trees, inquests, notebooks, and shipping records including passenger lists and crew lists. Many of the records in this series were stored by Nancye Perry in a filing cabinet.

Series 13 contains assorted correspondence sent to or received by Nancye Kent Perry. Nancye Perry's main correspondents in Series 13 are Warren Perry and other members of her family, in particular Enid and Palmer Kent, her parents. This series also contains correspondence with friends.

Nancye Perry's other correspondents included Elaine Marriner, theatre owner, Anna Neagle, British actor, and Macfarlane Burnet, virologist. This series also includes letters Nancye Perry received during the 1930s from 'Old Nancy', an editor at the Argus newspaper. For more correspondence between Nancye Perry and the Argus, see Inventory Item PERR00762 - 'Assorted Genealogical Records - N. E. K. Perry' in Series 12 Family History.

Series 13 contains a file of personal and professional letters that pertains to Nancye Perry's period of employment at the Forest Products Research Laboratory in the United Kingdom.

Additionally, Series 13 contains other writings by Nancye Perry on assorted subjects, including equal pay for men and women.