This is a collection of Cope's articles, papers, notes, lectures, notebooks, and some correspondence. There is much on his research pertaining to Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, and other topics in the history of science on which he wrote. The collection includes lecture notes and three bound notebook volumes on mechanics from his study at the University of Berlin under Max Planck from 1912 to 1913. There are 11 additional bound volumes, all relating to physics, including: Minutes of meetings of the Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania (1910-1919), two volumes on the history of physics, and a volume of data on the radiometer as a measurer of electric current. The collection also contains notes on electric circuit theory lectures (1924-1925) by J.R. Carson, notes on lectures on relativity (1921) by Albert Einstein, lectures by W.F.G. Swann (1928), and information about the Pennsylvania Academy of Science, and on radiation (1909). There is significant correspondence from Lionel G. Dixon and Victor Englehardt.

William Jacob Robbins (1890-1978, APS 1941) was a botanist and physiologist. From 1937 to 1957 he was director of the New York Botanical Garden. His research focused on culture methods of plants in relation to biochemistry and nutrition, especially on the synthetic abilities of fungi. His studies paralleled the scientific agenda of the Rockefeller Foundation, an agency with which he was closely associated for years as adviser and trustee. He was perhaps the most influential botanist in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) during the early postwar era, and a principal participant in the plans for the global reconstruction of science. Robbins served as president of the American Philosophical Society from 1956 to 1959.