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.

The Amory H. "Bud" Waite Papers contains documents, scrapbooks, artifacts, photographs, negatives, 16mm and 35mm films, slides, magnetic tapes and audiocassettes dating from 1796-1989, though the bulk of the materials date from the 1930s to the 1960s. The materials concern both Waite's career as a radio and electrical engineer in polar regions during expeditions, and his personal life. The expeditions files contain diaries, reports, artifacts, charts, ice-depth survey data, maps, and photographs taken by Waite or others during his twenty-three trips to the Arctic and Antarctic. His personal files contain photographs, correspondence, publications and other ephemera on radio engineering, echo sounding, boating, polar philately, military service, and genealogy.