Besides artwork, the Petra Mathers Collection contains related archival materials. The archival materials in this case are manuscripts, correspondence, awards, and press materials. However, the majority of the archival collection is made up of manuscripts.

There are a total of seven different drafts in The Zimmerli collection. It is interesting to note that one version, probably the earliest version of the manuscript, is contained in the dummy book and as a result is treated like artwork. Reading the manuscript in this form is, however, challenging due to its inconsistent quality. A photocopy, of uneven quality, was apparently cut up and glued into the dummy book. Unfortunately, this original is not in The Zimmerli's holdings so no higher quality images exist. The remaining six manuscripts have been numbered one through six. Please note that there is no second draft. In addition, two drafts are labeled as sixth drafts, although one is referred to as the sixth draft cleaned up. All of the drafts contain handwritten editorial comments that are fascinating to read.

None of the manuscripts are dated. However, there was some dated correspondence attached to some of the manuscripts. This only suggests approximate dates. In the case of the dummy book there is a note on the first page that reads, "the photographs are of paintings I made in 1982." This by no means is a definitive date for the text but it leaves open the possibility that the text also dates from this time. When comparing the text found in the dummy book with that of the manuscript labeled first draft it appears as though the text in the dummy book is older. In this case, the handwritten editorial comments refer to passages in that are in the dummy book but have been eliminated in the first draft. For example, on the very first page of the first draft Anne, Petra's editor, writes "Petra, I love the wine making page, but feel that talking about E's father, & her life off of the farm is not what this book is about." with an arrow pointing between the second and third paragraphs. These paragraphs respectively refer to the text pages before and after the wine making text page.

The only other manuscripts to have dates associated with them are the third and fourth manuscripts, which had letters from Anne, attached to them. These letters are dated 1991, the first from April and the second from October. To begin to establish dates on the remaining manuscripts will take a little more detective work, but there are probably clues in correspondence between Petra and her publishing house.

After selecting which manuscript to read a pop-up window will appear with the first page of the manuscript showing. The buttons to move forward and backward through the manuscript appear at the top and bottom of the page. Additional texts for the book are available in the miscellany section following the manuscripts. Please note that there is only one size available for all of the text pages.