The Charles Christopher Adams papers include correspondence, diaries, field notes, manuscripts, and photographs, all reflecting Adams' interests in biology, ecology and human ecology, geography, and zoology. The field notebooks are extensive, spanning the years 1888-1948. Of special interest are those on the Adirondack regions, 1919-1948 (2 boxes) and from his Latin American trip of 1948. The photographs are both family and professional, with many from his numerous field trips. Of significance are the photos and negatives from the Roosevelt Wild Life Experiment Station (N.Y. State College, Syracuse) and from the University of Montana Biological Station at Flathead Lake, Montana (1913). There is much personal correspondence with Wilda P. Mackenzie. A part of the collection pertains to his daughter, Harriet Adams, including exchanges with the Charles C. Adams Center for Ecological Studies at Western Michigan University, and her unfinished biography of her father.

Robert Cushman Murphy (1887-1973), one of the twentieth century's great ornithologists, was curator of mammals and birds at the Brooklyn Museum (1911-1917) and was curator of birds and later chairman of birds at the American Museum of Natural History (1917-1973). The world's foremost authority on sea birds, in 1936, he penned Oceanic Birds of South America, a two volume set. An ardent traveler and explorer, he kept copious notes of his travels, which he typed up, illustrated and had bound. The APS library owns forty-two bound journals. Murphy was made an APS member in 1946. A pioneer in the study of the ecology, a louse, fish, plant, lizard, an Antarctic inlet, spider, and two mountains have acquired his name. This collection contains diaries, journals, articles, addresses and observations of Murph;, generously illustrated with newspaper clippings, photographs, letters, sketches, maps, and charts.