The James John Sawdey photograph collection was donated in two albums. The photographs were removed from the first album for preservation purposes. The removed photographs were placed in folders 1 through 17 and labeled by subject, but original order of the album has been maintained and handwritten captions were preserved and kept with the photographs they describe. Many of the photographs are captioned on the backs in pencil, likely by Sawdey's children. According to a caption, many (perhaps all) of the photographs were taken by and the album compiled by a Corporal Gambel: Caption from album reads "Chronicles of the 10th Mtn. Division World War II Guitigliano, It. Feb. 1945 Corp. Gambel-Jeep driver-photographer."

The second album has brown leather-like covers embossed with "Jim Sawdey" and "McClellan Field, Calif." The pages, which are made of black construction-type paper, contain black-and-white photograph prints primarily depicting Jim Sawdey and other members of the 87th Infantry Regiment and the 10th Mountain Division skiing and in the snow during their training in mountain and winter combat techniques at Mount Rainier, Washington, Alaska, and Camp Hale, Colorado.