These notebooks contain lectures or reports on lectures, with corresponding watercolor and pen-and-ink drawings. There are volumes on geology (Great Britain and elsewhere), natural history, mechanics (sketches of levers, valves, and weighing machines), and steam engines (sketches of mechanics of boilers).

This collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, drawings, diaries, notebooks, and photographs. Sanderson began his travels in the jungles of Asia and Africa before starting his formal schooling at Eton and Cambridge in the late 1920s and early 1930s. His papers reflect his interest in animals, jungles, and natural history. Late in his life Sanderson's interest turned to UFO's and he was the director of the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained.