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.

Victor George Heiser, who was a preeminent public health physician, created a rich archive of material documenting all phases of his career, especially the international health work of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1915-1934. There are voluminous, detailed, and interesting diaries for the whole course of his adult life (1890-1972). There are notebooks reflecting on his early training and work (1890-1907), and lectures he attended at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia (1897).