The Wakefield Dort, Jr. Papers collections contains aerial photgraphs, photograph negatives, photographs, a field notebook, a United States Antarctic Research Program flag, a United States Antarctic Research Program plaque, maps, audio tapes, patches, and 16mm and 35mm slides. Items in this collection were complied during Dort, Jr's time in the United States Antarctic Research Program. Material is dated circa 1940s to 2002 March.

"Photographs of Antarctica, Presented to G. M. Schwartz for the Department of Geology, University of Minnesota, Through the Courtesy of Professor Lawrence [Laurence] Gould, Second In Command of the Expedition" includes black and white photographic prints glued to album pages. The images depict ice and geological features of the Ross Ice Shelf, Liv Glacier, and the Bay of Whales in Antarctica, and were taken by Laurence M. Gould during the first Byrd Antarctic Expedition (1928-1930). Most of the images were taken from a plane, and include captions that identify the location the photograph was taken, as well as images that were used by Gould in publications about the expedition, particularly in "The Ross Shelf Ice" article published in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America in 1935. The album was compiled circa 1935-1961.

The pages were originally held in a three-ring photograph album in numerical order, as indicated by the creator's handwritten numbers in the corners; the pages were removed from the album and placed in a folder for preservation purposes. There are no pages 8-9, and the last three pages of the album are not numbered; the final page of the album has an "x" written in place of a number.

The John Weihaupt Papers, which date from 1959-2012, with most of the collection taking place between 1959 and 1963, contains field notes and notebooks, aerial photographs and compact discs. These materials come from his 1959-1960 Victoria Land Traverse expedition in Antarctica and his 1961 South Pole Traverse expedition. The collection also includes an oral history interview with Brian Shoemaker audiocassette, transcripts and notes.

The John H. Roscoe Papers contain approximately 2,500 aerial photographs taken by Roscoe and Task Force 68 in Antarctica during Operation Highjump from 1946-1947, and Operation Windmill in 1948. The photographs, taken from vertical and oblique angles, map the surface features of the Antarctic landscape, including sea ice formations. The photographs in the collection were used by Roscoe to perform post-operation research for and form drafts of his 1952 PhD thesis, “Contributions to the Study of Antarctic Surface Features by Photogeographical Methods." As such, the collection contains both loose photographs and photographs integrated into rough drafts of the thesis, as well as other sources used by Roscoe in his research on this topic. The drafts consist of photographs grouped together by topic, cut, outlined, and captioned. Almost all aerial photographs in the collection are labeled officially by their sector, mission, and run, which corresponds to three geographic areas in Antarctica (AAC, AAE, and AAW), and the organization of photography flights. There are also photographs taken at ground level of various landscape and surface features, some of which are incorporated into the thesis drafts, as well as images of the Operation’s camp and camp life, ships, planes, and Antarctic fauna. The collection includes other materials related to Operation Highjump, such as Roscoe’s correspondence received from 1946-1947, and four volumes of the official Naval report of Operation Highjump, dated 1948. The collection also contains materials related to other aspects of Roscoe’s career, such as correspondence received while he was working at the Photo Interpretation Center in Washington D.C. before Operation Highjump, a Topcon stereoscope viewer dated circa 1980s, and the oral history interview he gave to the Ohio State University Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program in 2002. The collection is dated 1944-2003, with the bulk of materials dated circa 1946-1952.

The John H. Mercer Papers contain materials related to Mercer's research as a glaciologist with the Institute of Polar Studies from 1960-1987, such as aerial photographs, 16mm films, 35mm slides, field notebooks, correspondence, grant proposals, data reports, maps, published and unpublished articles, and other administrative materials. The collection also contains reference materials, including published works by other authors, and Mercer's official reviews and personal notes on the works of other researchers. There are also some personal materials, including photographic slides, in the collection. The materials date from 1912-1987, with the bulk dating from 1960-1987.

The Ian M. Whillans Papers, dated 1955-2001, contains datasheets, maps, reports, articles, aerial photographs, negatives, notes, equipment lists, calculations and field books regarding Whillans' glaciological research in Antarctica and Arctic regions.

The Charles R. Bentley Papers, dated 1948-2011, contains data sheets, data books, seismograms, aerial photographs, punched cards, microfilm, and magnetic data tapes compiled during his career as a polar scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, the collection contains course documentation, correspondence, maps, publications, minutes, programs, equipment and member lists, forms, proposals and reports gathered from Bentley's interactions with professional organizations, his expeditions, and the courses he taught at University of Wisconsin-Madison. The collection includes national and international meetings files that come from numerous polar and related organizations.