The William O. Bright papers consist particularly of extensive correspondence relating mostly to his later academic work, a number of field notebooks from North America and India, publications on and by Indigenous North Americans (especially Karuk and other Californian tribes) and from linguistic societies, his own research and publications, and extensive lexical slip files (especially on Karuk, Spanish borrowings, and copies of Daythal Kendall's Takelma and Kalapuyan files). Many audio recordings are also present, some of which are duplicates of those at the California Language Archive. In addition to the materials browsable through the finding aid, Bright's email correspondence and computer files can be accessed onsite at the APS. William Bright's career extended to a wide variety of linguistic work, including Native Californian languages and literatures, Native American place names, editorships of major linguistics journals, and writing systems of the world.

Dell Hymes' doctoral research on Kathlamet Chinook (Indiana University, 1955) grew into a lifelong interest in the relationship between ethnography and linguistics. Following academic appointments at Harvard University (1955-1960) and the University of California, Berkley (1960-1965), Hymes joined the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1965. During twenty-two years tenure at Penn he was a professor of folklore, linguistics, sociology and education. In 1975, he was promoted to Dean of the Graduate School of Education (1975-1987). A principal proponent of the emergent field of sociolinguistics, his most influential works include Reinventing Anthropology and Language in Culture and Society. The Hymes papers cover all aspects of Dell Hymes' professional life. Subcollection I is concentrated on his years at the University of Pennsylvania, his presidencies of the American Association of Anthropology and the Linguistic Society of America, and his editorship of the journal Language in Society. Subcollection II is broader, focusing much more on published and unpublished linguistic work on dozens of languages, mostly of North America. Of particular interest is his rich correspondence with colleagues and students on linguistic issues. The papers reflect Hymes' interests in the history of linguistics and anthropology, Native American languages (especially oral literatures), and his comparative ethnographies of communication.