Beginning with his college life as an undergraduate at Harvard (1905-1906), Morley's diaries continue through his earliest travels and explorations of Central America (1907-1944), with information on the study of Mayan hieroglyphs, publications, the study of Central American ruins, and the manners and customs of the jungle Indians. Five volumes are devoted to four separate archaeological expeditions: Copan expedition (1937), Uxmal expedition (1941-1942), Central American expedition (1944), and Guatemala and Honduras expedition (1947). Formal and detailed field notes form the bulk of Morley's archaeological work. There are no diaries for 1908-1911, 1913, 1926-1930, 1933-1936, 1938-1940, and 1943.

This collection includes field notes and reports, diaries of expeditions, texts, grammars, dictionaries of Indian languages, theses and research papers collected by members of the Department of Anthropology of the University of Chicago in connection with the Carnegie Institution of Washington Middle American Research Program as well as various Middle American governmental agencies. A microfilm publication of the University of Chicago, 1946-1957. Table of contents available.