This collection includes approximately 14,000 aperture cards (a computer data card with a 35mm microfilm window) that cover major development projects and related activities in the City of Norfolk, Virginia from the 1940s through the 1970s. The cards are organized by neighborhood area or project, and in some cases, sub-organized by category of activity and information (site diagrams, architectural plans, roads and utilities, etc.).

Aperture cards are an obsolete data storage and retrieval system used in the 1960s through the early 1990s. Machine-readable "punch" holes in the card contained searchable metadata about the subject in the microfilm window. Most of the cards in this collection are not "punched," but do include notes about subject, date, and project number.