This collection, created by scholar Francelia Butler, documents the Ruskin Co-operative Association, which was active from 1893 to 1899 in Ruskin, Tennessee and from 1899 to 1901 in Ruskin, Georgia. Among these materials are published records, documents, photographs, newspapers (which discuss the economic depression of the 1890s that induced people to join the Commune), and published articles.

Francelia Williams Butler (1913-1998) wrote for the International Herald Tribune in Paris during the 1930s and taught English for 21 years at the University of Connecticut. She received a B.A. from Oberlin College, M.A. from Georgetown University, and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. Butler launched the International Peace Games Festival for elementary school teachers and children, founded the journal Children's Literature, and also published a book on skip-rope rhymes, entitled Skipping Around the World in 1989.