The bacteriologist and virologist Thomas Milton Rivers spent over thirty years at the Rockefeller Institute as a researcher in the Department of Bacteriology and from 1937-1955, as Director. Working on measles and pneumonia, Rivers discovered the parainfluenzae bacillus and cultivated vaccine virus for human use, and during the 1950s, he played an important role in coordinating research on poliomyelitis as head of the National Institute for Infantile Paralysis. During the Second World War, Rivers led the Naval Medical Research Unit in the South Pacific, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral. The Rivers Papers contains correspondence, laboratory notes, speeches, and photographs documenting Rivers' activities at the Rockefeller Institute, the development of polio vaccine, and Rivers' Navy experience in the Pacific during World War II.

In addition to extensive correspondence, there are numerous laboratory notes, lecture notes, drafts of published papers, reports. This material documents Long's career, with much on his work with diabetes, including the International Diabetes Federation. His 1950 trip to Japan as an advisor to Japanese medical schools on medical education is also documented. In addition, there is substantial material on the Yale University Department of Physiology and the School of Medicine.

William Jacob Robbins (1890-1978, APS 1941) was a botanist and physiologist. From 1937 to 1957 he was director of the New York Botanical Garden. His research focused on culture methods of plants in relation to biochemistry and nutrition, especially on the synthetic abilities of fungi. His studies paralleled the scientific agenda of the Rockefeller Foundation, an agency with which he was closely associated for years as adviser and trustee. He was perhaps the most influential botanist in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) during the early postwar era, and a principal participant in the plans for the global reconstruction of science. Robbins served as president of the American Philosophical Society from 1956 to 1959.

For his pioneering research on the link between viruses and cancer, the pathologist Francis Peyton Rous was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1966. Working primarily at the Rockefeller Institute after 1909, Rous first came to notice for his theoretical construction of the first blood bank for use in France during World War I, a plan ultimately implemented by his assistant, Oswald H. Robertson. Subsequently, he left an important imprint on the development of experimental medicine, partly through his own research on the origins of cancer and his administrative activities at the Rockefeller, but also as editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine from 1921-1970. The Rous Papers include correspondence, lectures, articles, reports, laboratory records, reprints, and photographs that document all aspects of the life and work of Peyton Rous. Reflecting his work at the Institute are letters of colleagues, information on assistants, and reports to the directors (1909-1959). Additional material relates to Rous' diverse organizational interests, including the American Cancer Society, Century Association, Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research (at Yale University), Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Johns Hopkins University, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, New York Academy of Medicine, Royal Society of Medicine Foundation, and Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research.

An administrator and humanist, Henry Allen Moe (1894-1975) was the first director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and was a president of the American Philosophical Society from 1959 to 1970. The Moe Papers are a vast and rich resource documenting all phases of Moe's career, but are also a major source of information on twentieth-century philanthropic organizations. As the first Secretary, then Administrator, and finally President of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (ca. 1925-1963), Moe made contact with the influential and the aspiring in the worlds of banking, finance, the arts, and sciences. This collection is particularly strong in correspondence and information relating to Latin America, much of it generated through Moe's oversight of the Guggenheim's Latin America Fund and by Moe's otherwise keen interest in the region. This material is diverse, ranging from material on agriculture (see Escuela Agricola Panamericana, 15 boxes) and Peruvian archaeology (see Alfred Kroeber's detailed report) to many folders of correspondence and grant reports from artists, writers, and politicians of South and Central America. Moe served as trustee, officer, and committee member of over thirty private foundations, many of which are well represented in the collection by yearly reports and grant applications, among other types of records.