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 Philip M. Smith Papers, dated circa 1898-1935 and 1954-2013, contains photographs, slides, postal covers, publications, reports, newspaper clippings, treaties, artifacts, certificates and maps, which document Smith's career in administration of research in the Polar Regions, as well as his own fieldwork. Some of the artifacts and framed prints contain materials such as paintings and signs that predate Smith's career and relate to polar explorers, including British explorers, and to landscapes.