This collection documents the history, activities, and celebrations of many of the women's Religious Orders throughout New Jersey, generally spanning the years from 1869-2012. There are also some documents pertaining to Orders outside of New Jersey, but the bulk of this collection focuses on New Jersey Orders. There are seven NJ Orders which produced enough material to warrant their own series within this collection. Programs, bulletins, and newspaper clippings are heavily present in each Order's materials, as well as some correspondence. The history of the Orders is also included within most of the series.

While most of the material, particularly material from prior to the 1970s, was generated by the orders or members of order, some materials were collected by the Archdiocese of Newark or by the Archives and Special Collections Center and included in the collection. In addition, much of the correspondence from the 1930s and earlier may in fact have been collected by the Archbishop prior to the creation of the office of the Vicar for Religious. It is unclear how this material became part of this collection. Please see ADN 0073 for more of these types of materials. Some material on women's religious orders are also mixed in with ADN 11, Men's religious orders of the Archdiocese of Newark.