The first three volumes contain journals of Strahan's travels in Scotland, with records of expenses along the way, for 1751, 1759, 1760, 1766, 1768, 1773, and 1777. Strahan and Benjamin Franklin were in Edinburgh at the same time in 1759. The fourth volume contains "The particulars of the estate of Wm Strahan as it stood on the first of January 1755," and also for 1759 and 1761, with some miscellaneous accounts.

A wealthy retired businessman and art collector from New York and Newport, R.I., Theodore M. Davis financed a series of archeological excavations in Egypt between 1889 and 1912. Avid, but not necessarily disciplined in his approach, he supported a remarkably productive series of excavations at Thebes and, in the work for which he is best remembered, in the Valley of the Kings. On many of these expeditions, Davis was accompanied by his relative, Emma B. Andrews. The diary that Andrews kept during these expeditions is valuable on two scores. First, at its best, it provides a literate and often detailed record of an adventurous American woman traveling in fin de siecle Egypt and (to a lesser degree) Italy and her encounters with life in the colonial British settlements along the Nile. Second, it provides some important details on the appearance of tombs in the Valley of the Kings as they were first unearthed, with interesting comments upon Davis and a number of his fellow Egyptologists.

The collection consists of diaries, 1890-1938, containing brief records of professional work and family events (49 vols.); also autobiography entitled "Memories for my boys," 1930 (B D713m), referring to his childhood and to his professional career and mentioning Franz Boas, William Comstock, Livingston Farrand, William W. Keen, S. Weir Mitchell, Elihu Root, and W. T. Sedgewick and also APS, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, and Wistar Institute (1 vol.); also a few miscellaneous papers, 1869-1932, chiefly letters to and from members of his family, and also Poultney Bigelow, Simon Henry Gage, and W. B. Van Ingen; two essays ("The Days of Man" and "A Venetian Night"): genealogical data; verses dedicated to his wife; extracts of letters to supplement his diaries.

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 correspondence (4 linear feet), diaries, manuscripts of publications, and research data (6 linear feet.). Mooney-Slater (1902- 1981) was born Rose Camille LeDieu and grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. She received her BS at Newcomb College, MS at Tulane University and PhD from the University of Chicago (1932) where she worked under Will Zachariasen. Recognized as an outstanding crystallographer, she was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, appointed chair of the physics department at Tulane University, worked at the Metallurgical Laboratory under the auspices of the Manhattan District at the University of Chicago, and on the structure of crystals and crystalline materials using X-ray diffraction.

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.

The plant physiologist and historian Rodney H. True (1866-1940) divided his career relatively evenly between the Bureau of Plant Industry in United States Department of Agriculture and the Department of Botany and Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. A specialist in the physiological function of mineral nutrients in plants, True was active in his later career in the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society, and the Agricultural History Society. The True Papers consist of 6 linear feet of material relating primarily to the period of his career spent at the University of Pennsylvania. The collection contains roughly equal proportions of personal and professional correspondence, with a few diaries and research notebooks documenting his involvement with professional organizations and his interests in the history of his discipline.