The collection documents the Gilchrists' involvement with various radical organizations, including the Modern Women's Club, Union of Australian and the Workers' Art Guild. There is material on communism, socialism, and working people.

The papers at ACC 3532A, documenting their friendship with Katharine Susannah Prichard which began in the 1930s, includes diaries (incomplete) for 1964 and 1969, envelopes from various countries, films (including film from Katharine Susannah Prichard's funeral) taken by John Gilchrist, letters from Prichard, manuscripts, publications, recordings and reminiscenses about Prichard by John Gilchrist. ACC 3801A deals mainly with Roma Gilchrist's involvement with the Women's Movement, 1940-1982. ACC 3255A & 5894A include certificates; conference papers; correspondence (much with the Union of Australian Women, 1962-1982); press cuttings of reviews of plays by the Workers' Art Guild (1954-1981); diaries of holidays in Europe, South East Asia, Japan and the USSR; files on the Humanist Society (1966-1968), disarmament, the Workers Art Guild, the Union of Australian Women and other subjects; histories; lists of the members of the Union of Australian Women and the Modern Women's Club; memoir of organisations and people they worked with; newsletters; notes and notebooks; photographs; plays (some written by the Gilchrists); poetry of John Gilchrist; programs; publications on communism, socialism and the working classes; reports; scrapbooks; songs; specifications; and other writings.