The Corner collection includes correspondence, biographical and research data, lectures, publications, notebooks and drawings, and also photographs. He was both a scientist, specializing in mammalian reproduction and the female reproduction cycle (being a co-discoverer of the hormone progesterone along with Willard M. Allen), and a medical historian writing both biography and institutional history.

Correspondence, notebooks, research data related to Cole's career as the first director at the Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, 1908-1937. His research of pneumonia was conducted when the disease was epidemic. Personal correspondence reflect Cole's life as a medical resident at Johns Hopkins, 1899-1908. Documented are his memberships in leading medical organizations throughout his career, including the Association of American Physicians and the New York Academy of Medicine. This collection showcases the evolving changes in the medical profession from practicing physician to clinician.