Collection consists of the official minutes of the Dallas City Council, known initially as the City of Dallas Board of Aldermen from 1866 to 1905. The Mayor-Alderman system existed from 1856 to1906 and included a mayor and five elected aldermen. The minutes document the the decision making, actions, day-to-day operations, services, and programs, as well as the laws, rules and regulations of the City of Dallas. Several of the ledgers contain a number of blank pages, and the earliest ledger contains newspaper clippings and two 1871 broadsides pasted into blank pages.

The ledgers are an original set of manuscript minutes created in various non-standard paper formats that were later transcribed and copied for preservation into the standardized ledger size of 13 x 18 inches, a format used from the 1870s to the mid-1970s. The City Secretary's Office officially abandoned the adopted the standard 8.5 x 11 inch dimensions in 1975. Use of this original set is restricted due to the fragile condition; a microfilm set is available to researchers. Note: Dallas City Council Minutes Book No. 1, 1869 - 1872 is misnumbered as it is actually the second volume.

Council minutes contain information about all actions of city government, including elections, ordinances, resolutions, reports of all kinds relating to government services, and other information. The council’s official records, including minutes of the Dallas City Council [and earlier forms of government], from 1868 to the present, are available for research in paper, electronic, and micrographic forms. Complete earlier minutes (1868 -1955) and later minutes (1977-2000) are on microfiche and indexed by subject or topic and by ordinance and resolution numbers.