The S. Edward Roos Papers date from 1928-1999 and 2009, with the bulk of materials dating between 1928-1991; incidental materials related to Roos and his career dated after his death were kept by his son. The rest of the collection consists of items created and collected by Roos over the course of his sailing career, including notebooks from his trips to Antarctica during Byrd Antarctic Expeditions I and II, a photograph album from Byrd Antarctic Expedition I, ship service records spanning his entire career, and correspondence and newsletters from fellow members of the Byrd Antarctic Expeditions. Also included are newspaper clippings about the ships he was on that survived torpedo attacks, research about other ships he had sailed on in his career, a Swedish Admiral Byrd obituary clipping, and photocopies of the Roos Papers at the United States National Archives. Finally, the collection contains Roos's medals and uniform decorations from the United States Merchant Marine, his World War II Victory Medal, Byrd Antarctic Expedition II Guernsey Cattle Club medal, cap badge and shoulder boards, and two Freemason rings. These items arrived in a military medal rolled storage pouch, with Roos's service award bars pinned to it; these bars remain attached to the pouch.

The George F. Kosco Papers, which dates from 1945-before 1993, contains photograph albums, a VHS videocassette and a 16mm film regarding Operation Highjump. The videocassette contains footage of the surrender of Japanese forces during World War II, a trip to the Arctic and Operation Highjump.

The Katharine Byrd and Robert G. Breyer Family Papers on Richard E. Byrd contain correspondence, plaques, a scrapbook, clippings, photographs, programs, digital media and other documents related to Katharine Byrd Breyer and her husband Robert G. Breyer's participation in programs honoring Katharine's father, Admiral Richard E. Byrd. The materials mainly relate to posthumous building, ship, and monument dedications, and other ceremonies honoring Richard E. Byrd from locations around the world, including a significant dedication in Wellington, New Zealand, on the fifth anniversary of Byrd's death in 1962. The collection also has a few items dated before Richard E. Byrd's death, including some correspondence sent from Byrd to Katharine and Robert, and one 2007 clipping on Richard E. Byrd collected by Robert G. and Katharine's son, Robert Byrd Breyer. The materials are dated 1938-circa 2000s.

"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.