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The McGaw Collection is named after its donor, William C. McGaw, author and historian. The Collection is comprised of the compiled works of at least two photographers, Russell Metcalfe and James Alexander. Metcalfe lived in El Paso and was in business for 52 years up until his death on March 19, 1961. Alexander moved to El Paso from High Rolls, New Mexico.

Metcalfe's widow gave McGaw close to 1,500 photographs capturing the El Paso/Juarez area, Mexican Revolution, New Mexico towns, national parks and nature, hoping he would put them to good use. McGaw in turn, donated the collection to the El Paso Public Library's Southwest Department in 1965. At present, only a portion of the collection is available, however, additional images will be included in the future.

Unfortunately, the great majority of photographs lack a photographer insignia or other form of identification. As of yet, no additional information as to which photographs are attributed to which photographer has been located. Thus, unless clearly marked or identified, the creator will be noted as "Unknown" in the photograph record.