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Including correspondence, lectures, addresses, speeches, news clippings, tourist brochures, pamphlets, newsletters, notes, notebooks, unpublished manuscripts, photographs, posters, maps, and reproductions of painting and drawings, this collection is mostly composed of materials connected with Shepperson's research and activities surrounding various David Livingstone projects.

The centenary of David Livingstone's death in 1973 heralded an increased scholarly and popular interest in the missionary-explorer, particularly in Scotland. Shepperson played an important role in the events and endeavors associated with the centenary, most notably as Chairman of the David Livingstone Documentation Project. His correspondence relating to that position is well represented in the collection. At the time, he also gave many popular speeches and addresses for several academic groups about Livingstone, many of which are included here. Also included are a number of materials associated with various centenary events held at the David Livingstone Centre in Blantyre, Scotland and the David Livingstone Memorial in Malawi, encompassing newsletters, pamphlets, tourist brochures, correspondence, and reports of the Scottish National Memorial to David Livingstone Trust.

The collection also contains the research materials Shepperson used to write his book David Livingstone and the Rovuma. This includes photocopies of Livingstone's notebooks and diaries, reproductions of Thomas Baines' paintings of Livingstone's Zambezi expeditions, and materials related to Vero Bosazza. Bosazza, a field geologist with expertise in southern and central Africa, was a keen supporter of the scientific findings made during Livingstone's Zambezi expeditions. The collection includes Bosazza and Shepperson's extensive correspondence on that topic, as well as number of Bosazza's maps, photographs, and unpublished writings pertaining to the Zambezi.