The Elmer M. Cranton Oral History, dated 2002, 2009, contains audio recordings, administrative information, and transcripts of the interview between Dr. Cranton and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on April 30, 2002. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by the American Polar Society and Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics discussed include Cranton's trip to Antarctica where he wintered over in 1966 to 1967, his career in the United States Navy, and how he became a doctor.

The Donald McLean Oral History, dated 1997, 2001-2002, contains audio recordings, administrative information, and transcripts of the interview between McLean and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on April 27, 1997. Major topics discussed include McLean's memories of his time with the Ronne Antarctic Expedition in 1946-1947, Ronne's leadership style, and McLean's further experiences in the polar regions while in the United States Navy.

The Antarctic Deep Freeze Oral History Project, dated 1998-2005 June, contains recordings and transcripts of the interviews between Dian Belanger and veterans of Operations Deep Freeze I and Deep Freeze II. The Antarctic Deep Freeze oral history project was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and supported by the Antarctic Deep Freeze Association. It consists of recordings and typed transcripts of oral history interviews with members of Operation Deep Freeze to capture individual memory and personal perspective on United States involvement in Antarctica during the 1950s. Topics during the interviews include daily life on the bases and various jobs and workloads amongst team members. Abstracts providing brief summaries about each individual interview are included at the series levels in the collection.

The majority of formats in the collection include audio-only interviews, along with two video recordings on VHS videocassettes, one of which is a video recording of the oral history interview of Charles R. Wilson from this project. The other video recording is a VHS videocassette copy of a recording made prior to Dick Slagle's death in 1971.

For all series other than Dick Slagle's, the original recording of the interview on audiocassette is included, followed by a copy of the same recording and then a transcript of the interview. Transcripts of the audiocassette interviews are available online.

"Dr. Louis Hauiti Potaka of New Zealand: A Biographical Essay" Manuscript by Bruce Young dates from December 2005, and consists of a typed manuscript. It is a brief biographical essay written by Young that describes what he learned about Potaka's life and participation in the Byrd Antarctic Expedition II through secondary source research. The first version of this essay was published on December 31, 1999; the version in this collection is the revised December 2005 edition.