Materials are arranged into 5 series. Series 1: Manuscript Projects contains original articles, drafts, manuscripts, papers, and photographs from Vick's writing career and is arranged into 5 sub-series; Sub-series 1: Articles & Chapters, Sub-series 2: Petra's Legacy: The South Texas Ranching Empire of Petra Vela and Mifflin Kenedy, Sub-series 3: Literary Dallas, Sub-series 4: Letters to Alice: Birth of the Kleberg-King Ranch Dynasty, and Sub-series 5: Tales of Texas Cooking: Stories and Recipes from the Trans-Pecos to the Piney Woods and High Plains to the Gulf Prairies.

Series 2: Organizations contains correspondence, papers, photographs, and records from Vick's involvement and is arranged into 11 sub-series; Sub-series 1: Dallas Public Library, Sub-series 2: Humanities Texas, Sub-series 3: Philosophical Society of Texas, Sub-series 4: Texas A&M University Press, Sub-series 5: Texas Folklore Society, Sub-series 6: Texas Institute of Letters, Sub-series 7: Texas State Historical Association, Sub-series 8: Texas Tech University Press, Sub-series 9: Texas Woman's University, Sub-series 10: University of North Texas, and Sub-series 11: University of Texas at Austin.

Series 3: Papers contains material on other associations, clippings, correspondence, funeral programs, invitations, letters, photographs, speech drafts, and Vick's vitaes. Series 4: Audio & Visual Materials contains two audiocassettes published by E-Heart Press and two VHS tapes from the University of North Texas. Series 5: Artifacts contains awards and objects from Vick's writing career and organizational tenure.

Frances Brannen Vick was born in East Texas in 1935. She received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Master of Arts (M.A.) in English from the University of Texas at Austin and Stephen F. Austin University, respectively. In 2000, she received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of North Texas. Vick began her career as an English teacher, lecturer, and editor before she founded E-Heart Press in 1979, which she operated until 1989. She later co-founded the University of North Texas Press in 1987 and served as Director from 1989 to 2000. Vick published over 200 books during her career with more than 25 of those books receiving state and national awards.

After her retirement in 2000, she co-authored the book, Petra's Legacy: The South Texas Ranching Empire of Petra Vela and Mifflin Kenedy (2007) with Jane Clements Monday, which won the Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize in 2007 for the Best Book on Texas History by the Texas State Historical Association. Vick and Monday also co-wrote Letters to Alice: Birth of the Kleberg-King Ranch Dynasty (2012) and Dr. Arthur Spohn: Surgeon, Inventor, and Texas Medical Pioneer (2018) with Charles W. Monday. Additionally, Vick wrote the books, Literary Dallas (2008), One Hundred Years of "The Eyes of Texas" (2003), and Tales of Texas Cooking: Stories and Recipes from the Trans-Pecos to the Piney Woods and High Plains to the Gulf Prairies (2015). She also contributed chapters to the books Her Texas: Story, Image, Poem & Song (2015), Notes from Texas: From Writing in the Lone Star State (2008), The Family Saga: A Collection of Texas Family Legends (2003), Texas Women on the Cattle Trails (2006), Texas Women Writers: A Tradition of Their Own (1997) and Quotable Texas Women (2005), as well as articles for The Dallas Morning News, Texas State Historical Association's Southwestern Historical Quarterly journal, and the University of Texas at Austin's The Alcade magazine.

Vick is an active philanthropist and has served on numerous boards. She was the President of the Texas Institute of Letters from 2006 to 2008, President of the Texas State Historical Association in 2008, and President of the Philosophical Society of Texas in 2012 after serving in the preceding year as Vice President for each organization. She was recognized as a Fellow of the Texas Folklore Society and Life Member of the East Texas Historical Association, Leadership Texas Alumni Association, Stephen F. Austin Alumni Association, Texas State Historical Association, and the University of Texas at Austin Texas Exes. She was also an adviser for councils and committees of the Dallas Public Library Friends, Humanities Texas, Philosophical Society of Texas, Texas A&M University Press, Texas Institute of Letters, Texas Tech University Press, Texas Woman's University, and the University of North Texas, among others. Vick and her husband, Ross W. Vick, Jr. established the 501(c)(3) non-profit, the Vick Family Foundation, Inc., which creates scholarships and grants for academic insitutions and provides gifts to numerous charitable organizations.

Vick was named one of the "100 Texas Women Who Made a Difference" by The Dallas Morning News in 2001 and received the Honorary Alumnus Award by the University of North Texas in 1998, Humanities Texas Award in 2009, and Pro Bene Meritis Award by the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin in 2011. She also received the Carl Hertzog Award and Lecture Monograph from the University of Texas at El Paso in 2008 for Confessions of a Texas Publisher/Writer.