This collection consists primarily of correpondence and writings by Murphy. The correspondence is both family and professional, the former being largely of a social nature and including letters of her grandfather (Amos Chafee Barstow), mother (Grace P. Barstow), and sister (Mary Mason Barstow). Much of the correspondence with her sister reveals Murphy's interest in, and dedication to, conservation. There are articles and speeches pertaining to her interest in conservation or relating to the various trips she took with her husband, Robert Cushman Murphy.

These letters and papers include a memorandum book (1795-1827), lectures on botany and medicine, genealogical materials, committee reports from Columbia College, speeches, minutes of the New York Horticultural Society (1822-1828), letters to Sir James Edward Smith (1817-1826), a receipt book of Alexander Hosack (1781-1801), and diaries of Thomas K. Wharton (1830-1862).

This is an edited draft of Baruch's speech, which he dedicates on the first page to Herbert Swope, his speech writer, whom he notes is responsible for much of it. It is his exhortation to the Commission, and to the world, for the necessity of controlling atomic energy, and the steps to such control. Signatures of American delegates at the end are by: John M. Hancock, Richard C. Tolman, Leslie R. Groves, Tom Farrell, F. Eberstadt, Fred Searls, Jr., and Baruch. There is also the signature of Herbert Vere Evatt, the Australian delegate.

The bacteriologist and virologist Thomas Milton Rivers spent over thirty years at the Rockefeller Institute as a researcher in the Department of Bacteriology and from 1937-1955, as Director. Working on measles and pneumonia, Rivers discovered the parainfluenzae bacillus and cultivated vaccine virus for human use, and during the 1950s, he played an important role in coordinating research on poliomyelitis as head of the National Institute for Infantile Paralysis. During the Second World War, Rivers led the Naval Medical Research Unit in the South Pacific, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral. The Rivers Papers contains correspondence, laboratory notes, speeches, and photographs documenting Rivers' activities at the Rockefeller Institute, the development of polio vaccine, and Rivers' Navy experience in the Pacific during World War II.

These documents cover the years 1847 to 1953, the year of Millikan's death, but the core of the collection consists of the official papers generated by Millikan after his move to Pasadena in 1921. The collection includes more than 125,000 pages of letters, notebooks, unpublished speeches, addresses, lecture notes, and family papers.

Frederick Henry Osborn was an administrator, humanist, and scientist. This collection includes letters, diaries, reports, speeches, drafts of articles and books, oral history interviews, and photographs. There are diaries and letters for his service in Europe with the American Red Cross during World War I. There are some letters and documents, such as patent applications and plans for inventions, from his "business career" period prior to 1928, after which he became a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History studying anthropology and population. This study led to his later important contributions to the redirection of eugenics study in the U.S. and the reorganization of the American Eugenics Society. His other related organizational work and publications relating to human and population genetics are also documented in this collection. There is significant material (letters, diaries, reports) related to Osborn's World War II contributions as the chairman of the Civilian Committee on Selective Service in 1940, and as head of the Morale Branch of the U.S. Army (later, the Information and Education Division of Special Services) in 1941. Also included are important documents, especially his diary, from his work as deputy representative on the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the U.N. Commission for Conventional Armaments. His letters, writings, and speeches relating to foreign policy are extensive, spanning the period from the 1940s until his death, much of it from the Vietnam War years. The correspondence with Kathleen Harris is particularly rich in this respect. There is family correspondence reflecting his dynamic philosophy of life, with long series of letters to his parents (1917-1945) and to his children and grandchildren. His later civic and regional interests, as a long-time resident of Garrison, N.Y., are evidenced in the work he did on the Palisades Interstate Park Commission.

Edward Uhler Condon was a theoretical physicist at Princeton University and Westinghouse Laboratories who later served as director of the National Bureau of Standards (1945-1951), and as the director of research and development (1951-1954) and consulting physicist (1954-1974) at Corning Glass Works. The Condon Papers includes correspondence, notebooks, writings, photographs, and other materials concerning Condon's education, teaching, and his government, industrial, and academic.

An administrator and humanist, Henry Allen Moe (1894-1975) was the first director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and was a president of the American Philosophical Society from 1959 to 1970. The Moe Papers are a vast and rich resource documenting all phases of Moe's career, but are also a major source of information on twentieth-century philanthropic organizations. As the first Secretary, then Administrator, and finally President of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (ca. 1925-1963), Moe made contact with the influential and the aspiring in the worlds of banking, finance, the arts, and sciences. This collection is particularly strong in correspondence and information relating to Latin America, much of it generated through Moe's oversight of the Guggenheim's Latin America Fund and by Moe's otherwise keen interest in the region. This material is diverse, ranging from material on agriculture (see Escuela Agricola Panamericana, 15 boxes) and Peruvian archaeology (see Alfred Kroeber's detailed report) to many folders of correspondence and grant reports from artists, writers, and politicians of South and Central America. Moe served as trustee, officer, and committee member of over thirty private foundations, many of which are well represented in the collection by yearly reports and grant applications, among other types of records.