This collection includes correspondence, research data, reviews of grant proposals, organizations participated in, laboratories worked for, and student recommendations. The correspondence in the collection dates primarily to the 1960s-70s, when Mildred Cohn worked at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia, later renamed, Fox Chase Cancer Center. The letters are professional in content, discussing biochemistry, molecular biology, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments. The letters also concern lectures and participation in conferences and symposia, and there are materials relating to recommendations for students and colleagues for positions and promotions. Dr. Cohn's interest and involvement in the issue of women in science is presented, of particular note, her work with the University of Pennsylvania's Gender Equity Committee. The notebooks, by Cohn, her colleagues and students, contain extensive experimental data.

Britton Chance (1913-2010) was a biochemist and biophysicist as well as a pioneer in the field of biomedical optics. Chance received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1940 and his Ph.D. in Biology and Physiology from Cambridge University in 1942. Over the course of his nearly eight decade career, Chance was dedicated to the application and transfer of basic scientific research and technology to clinical medicine. The Britton Chance Papers contain correspondence, research notes, experimental data, publication materials, and photographs stemming from Chance's life as a biochemist, biophysicist, and yachtsman. The collection is broken up into fifteen series that document every aspect of his scientific work.