The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Collection of Local and Underground Press Serials contains roughly 600 titles published by local and underground presses in the United States (US), Canada, Europe, South America, and Australia. The collection dates between 1871 and 2005, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1960s through 1980s. The majority of the collection consists of incomplete runs of newspapers, magazines, newsletters, zines, comics, and bulletins published by local, independent presses in the US, encompassing activist networks, local media companies, clubs, individuals, independent artist collectives and cooperatives, student groups, and local non-profits. A significant quantity of the collection dates from the 1960s and 1980s, and documents feminism, environmentalism, peace activism, minority rights movements, and student organizing and the ways in which these movements affected discussions on the local level. Local presses from the Bay Area in California; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; and New York, New York are well documented in this collection.

Among the topics addressed in the serials are local news, regional history, rural and urban community networks, community development, wages and employment, anarchism, socialism, communal and sustainable living, environmentalism, feminism, student activism, and local arts and media. They also include critiques of US foreign policy and mainstream media, and contain educational resources about international independence movements and solidarity. The vast majority of the collection originates in and documents the US, and include publications from regional political networks. A small amount of international publications are present in the collection and primarily consist of publications from Europe and Canada, with some publications from South America and Australia. No complete runs of publications are contained herein, and generally only a handful of issues of each publication are held.