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.