The material pertains chiefly to the 1913-1933 period of his career when he was working on the "Atlas of World Agriculture," and on the Pioneer Belts Projects. There is material relating to the Association of American Geographers, "Economic Geography," and the Institute of Pacific Relations.

A collection of letters (family and professional), notebooks, diaries, lectures, articles, and photographs, of Smith, a noted American geographer who influenced the teaching of geography after 1920 through his many elementary texts. There is much material relating to these writings. His contributions to the rise of human geography and the related areas of conservation and ecology, are documented. His study in Europe under Friedrich Ratzel, at Leipzig in 1901-1912, is touched on in his journal for those years; included are many interesting observations on German university life. There is also much material on his nursery business in Virginia. Organizational files are numerous, e.g. Association of American Geographers, Columbia University, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Much of the correspondence is limited to only a few letters from each correspondent. Among the names included are: Willard G. Bixby, Isaiah Bowman, John W. Hershey, Emory R. Johnson, Walter C. Lowdermilk (of particular note is his 1926 paper, written while at the University of Nanking, "Forest Conservation in Shansi, China"), and Lewis Mumford.

This collection contains primarily professional correspondence and papers, but there is substantial material concerning Shryock family history. Most of the collection relates to Shryock's intellectual and social life at the University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, and Johns Hopkins University-- institutions where he made contributions as a professor of history and especially as a medical historian.

Robert Cushman Murphy (1887-1973), one of the twentieth century's great ornithologists, was curator of mammals and birds at the Brooklyn Museum (1911-1917) and was curator of birds and later chairman of birds at the American Museum of Natural History (1917-1973). The world's foremost authority on sea birds, in 1936, he penned Oceanic Birds of South America, a two volume set. An ardent traveler and explorer, he kept copious notes of his travels, which he typed up, illustrated and had bound. The APS library owns forty-two bound journals. Murphy was made an APS member in 1946. A pioneer in the study of the ecology, a louse, fish, plant, lizard, an Antarctic inlet, spider, and two mountains have acquired his name. This collection contains diaries, journals, articles, addresses and observations of Murph;, generously illustrated with newspaper clippings, photographs, letters, sketches, maps, and charts.