The Ace Alagna photographs consist of photographic negatives, prints, videos, and layout sheets from Ace Alagna's career as a photographer and as editor and owner of the newspaper the Italian Tribune. A large portion of the collection is made up of photographic negatives in several formats depicting a wide variety of people, places, and events, particularly related to the city of Newark and surrounding areas, the state of New Jersey in general, Columbus Day celebrations in Newark, the Italian American community in and around Newark, and politicians and celebrities.

Individuals featured in the collection are generally placed in Series 1: Politicians, or Series 4: Celebrities. Politicians include Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the United States, particularly John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey, New Jersey politicians including Governor Richard Hughes and Congressman Peter Rodino, and a large number of state senators and assemblymen, among many others. Celebrities, often associated with the Columbus Day parade and celebrations in Newark, include Danny Aiello, Frank Sinatra, Connie Francis, Joe Piscopo, and Tony LoBianco, among many others.

Many of the images are related to the Columbus Day parade in Newark and surrounding events, such as the Columbus Day dinner and luncheon, all sponsored by the Italian Tribune. Most images in Series 2: Columbus Day Parade and Series 3: Italian Tribune were likely created in relation to the activities of the Italian Tribune, and a number of these images were featured in that newspaper. Images in these series also focus on the Italian American community in Newark.

A large portion of the images were taken in New Jersey, particularly in Newark and surrounding areas, but other many other locations are represented. Series 5: Places and events includes images from New Jersey, New York, California, Florida, Italy, and England, among many others. Many of the images from places other than New Jersey and New York were likely personal images from the Alagna family's travels and activities. Series 6: Alagna family personal photographs includes images from personal family events.

Many of the images in this collection are believe to have been photographed by Ace Alagna, but many were likely taken by other photographers, possibly by staff photographers of the Italian Tribune. Earlier images may be more likely to have taken by Ace Alagna; images featuring Ace Alagna were likely taken by staff photographers. Photographic formats include black and white 4x5 sheet film negatives, black and white 120 roll film negatives, black and white 35mm film negatives, color 120 roll film negatives, color 35mm film negatives, color 35mm slides, black and white 8x10 sheet film negatives, black and white photographic prints, and color photographic prints.

Images are described at the file level: each file contains a group of images and indicates how many images are in that group. Many images have been scanned; these images have been assigned individual numbers, listed as "Image" with a span of numbers. Images that were not scanned are listed as "Folder" and have one number for the entire file, with an E or SG in the number. The format of the negatives are specified at the file level.

The prints and videos included in the collection are not yet fully processed. Prints will be added to the appropriate topical series as they are processed and described.