This collection contains correspondence, reports, notes, and notebooks. Clarke's participation in various organizations is documented, including the American Philosophical Society, American Chemical Society, American Otological Society, and the American Society of Biological Chemists. His chemistry research is detailed in thirteen notebooks, 1903-1971 (the 1903 volume is on photographic chemistry and processes). There is also one volume on the clarinet, for Clarke was an expert clarinetist. The personal and family correspondence is principally with Mrs. Dorothy Clarke Middleton and Mrs. Agnes Helfreich Clarke.

Britton Chance (1913-2010) was a biochemist and biophysicist as well as a pioneer in the field of biomedical optics. Chance received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1940 and his Ph.D. in Biology and Physiology from Cambridge University in 1942. Over the course of his nearly eight decade career, Chance was dedicated to the application and transfer of basic scientific research and technology to clinical medicine. The Britton Chance Papers contain correspondence, research notes, experimental data, publication materials, and photographs stemming from Chance's life as a biochemist, biophysicist, and yachtsman. The collection is broken up into fifteen series that document every aspect of his scientific work.