From 1945 until her retirement in 1969, Amy Wood Nyholm served as cataloguer and research librarian for the Newberry's Modern Manuscripts, later Midwest Manuscripts Collection. Nyholm was hired in 1945 to catalogue manuscript collections newly acquired for the Library by Lloyd Lewis as a result of Librarian Stanley Pargellis' decision to collect personal papers and archives complementing the Library's research strengths (particularly those relating to Chicago and the Midwest). Quickly, Nyholm enlarged her position to include donor relations, reader assistance, and other administrative duties related to the collections.

Amy Wood Nyholm's incoming and outgoing correspondence regarding the Modern Manuscripts Collection (later Midwest Manuscripts Collection), includes requests for information about and access to manuscript collections, correspondence with donors and other authors represented in the collections, and some notes from Newberry staff and trustees. Correspondents include Nelson Algren, Ray Billington, Stanley Morison, Katherine Anne Porter, and George Thomas Tanselle.