The Doris L. Walters Papers span from her birth in 1931 through retirement in 1998. Walters' secondary education is documented through a scrapbook, while materials from her college years (1957-1961) include scrapbooks, class notes, class papers, and memorabilia such as programs, clippings, and photographs. These materials also document Walters' earliest mission experiences, as a Home Mission Board (SBC) student missionary assigned to Illinois and Kansas during the summers of 1959 and 1960, respectively. Scrapbooks, photographs, guestbooks, and church programs also document Walters' relationship with the Winter Park Baptist Church, which she served as Youth Minister from 1963 to 1966.

Walters' career as a missionary to Japan, 1966-1988, is primarily documented through correspondence, diaries, and writings by Walters. However, the Doris Walters Papers also include printed materials regarding Fukuoka Friendship House and Seinan Jo Gakuin University, testimonials of young Christian converts in Japan, photographs, and materials concerning Foreign Mission Board plans for the SBC mission team in Japan. Handwritten and typed notes for Bible studies, devotionals, sermons, class lessons, and speeches to American churches about missions in Japan provide insight both into Walters' personal life and her more public missionary responsibilities; these are all filed under the series "Writings." Correspondence contained in the Walters Papers documents relationships cultivated on the mission field with Japanese natives.

The Walters Papers also contain materials related to her second career, as a counselor to missionary families. A significant number of materials collected for use in Walters' thesis, Death in Contemporary Japan, and dissertation, which addressed the issues of missionary children, are also included in this collection. Walters' concern for the emotional welfare of missionaries and their children led to the establishment of two successive services, Missionary Counseling and Support Services (MCSS) at N.C. Baptist Hospital, and Missionary Family Counseling Services (MFCS), independently run by Walters. The activities of both are documented in Walters Papers, primarily through newsletters and other publicity.

Walters's wide range of personal interests is attested to in the large number of newspaper clippings, magazine articles, miscellaneous printed materials and publications contained in this collection. Foremost among Walters' interests were the policies of fundamentalist leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention toward missions and missionaries. This collection contains clippings Walters collected on various controversies in the SBC and FMB from 1988 to 1992, as well as correspondence between Walters and FMB leaders. There are also extensive materials on Walters' involvement with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which was formed in reaction to the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC. Other prominent subjects in articles and newspaper clippings are family life, Christianity, psychology, and education in Japan. Walters also frequently clipped columns from Japanese newspapers in English and religious periodicals. The collection also includes memorabilia and artifacts that Walters collected or received as gifts during her time in Japan. Also included are audiovisual materials such as audiocassettes, audiotapes, and videocassettes.