These items include notes on "primitive economics" (Incan) for A. Irving Hallowell and from seminars with Linton Satterthwaite (on Mayan architecture), E. B. Howard (on problems of the Clovis site in New Mexico), and others at the University of Pennsylvania. There are also notes taken at the 1936 meeting of the American Anthropological Association of papers by various anthropologists in attendance, including Ruth Benedict, Frederica de Laguna, Waiter Dyk, William N. Fenton, Alfred V. Kidder, David G. Mandelbaum, George P. Murdock, Arthur C. Parker, Elsie Clews Parsons, Gladys A. Reichard, William A. Ritchie, Linton Satterthwaite, Gene Weltfish, and others regarding Cree, Flathead, Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), Kaingang (Southern Brazil), Kiowa, Mayan, Natchez, Navajo, Ojibwa, Pawnee, Pueblos, Sahaptin, Saulteaux, Siouan, Tarascan, Tonawanda (Seneca), Zuni, etc.

The collection represents the data that Roe (Mrs. George Gaylord Simpson) collected on 64 scientists for her 1953 book, The Making of a Scientist. The material for each scientist includes transcripts of interviews, Rorschach and Thematic Apperception Tests, personal data, reprints of the scientist's publications, and letters several years afterward the interview asking for additional information. There are also photostats of letters and notes by the scientists dating earlier than 1949; holders of the originals of these letters is unknown.

Audio recordings, photographs, and born-digital manuscripts documenting primarily Ojibwe and Cree communities and individuals in Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.

Alfred Irving ("Pete") Hallowell was an anthropologist best known for his studies of Ojibwa culture and world-view, and the innovative use of the Rorschach Test in his studies of the psychological interrelations of individuals and their culture. Early in his career, Hallowell worked as a social case worker for Family Service, and even after moving on to study anthropology in 1920 (M.A.), he carried with him an interest in ethnic and racial culture, developing additional interests in psychological testing. Except for the years 1944-1947, when he taught at Northwestern University, Hallowell spent his entire career at the University of Pennsylvania where he was professor of anthropology, professor of anthropological psychiatry in the Medical School, and curator of social anthropology at the University Museum. A cultural anthropologist, Hallowell's use of clinical psychological methods, especially Rorschach tests, was both innovative and controversial in his discipline. In his research, he concentrated on the Algonkian Indians, especially the Abenaki and Ojibwa Indians of Canada and Wisconsin (Berens River, Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin areas), and the Saulteaux of Berens River. The Alfred Irving Hallowell Papers (1892-1981) contain correspondence, subject files, manuscripts of published and unpublished works by Hallowell, papers by colleagues and students, research notes kept by Hallowell, with a special emphasis on social organization, personality, behavior, psychology, religion, and folklore. The collection of several hundred photographs provides rich graphic documentation of Hallowell's work among the Ojibwa and Abnaki Indians during the 1930s.

Elsie Clews Parsons (1875-1941) was trained as a sociologist at Columbia University, but made her greatest achievements in the fields of anthropology and folklore. Parsons' early works in the field of sociology dealt primarily with gender roles, conventions of society, and the effect of society's pressures on the individual. After a trip to the American Southwest with her husband in 1910, Parsons' interests turned to anthropology. She began making field trips to Arizona and New Mexico and, under the influence of her friend Franz Boas, Parsons recorded in meticulous detail data on social organization, religious practices, and folklore of the Southwest Indians. Concurrently, Parsons conducted research in folklore, concentrating on folk tales of Afro-Americans and Caribbean peoples. She was active in a number of professional associations and was the associate editor of the Journal of American Folklore from 1918 until her death. The Parsons Papers were acquired as two separate accessions and remains organized in two distinct subcollections. Subcollection I (572 P35), acquired in 1949, contains approximately 12 linear feet of materials focused on Parsons' career in anthropology. Subcollection II, acquired in 1985, consists of 26.25 linear feet of materials divided into ten series, covering a larger scope of Parsons' life, including family and personal correspondence.