The collection documents Bagnold's career as a desert explorer, soldier and scientist. There is good documentation of Bagnold's early explorations in the Middle East and North Africa 1926-1932. Scientific research is less well documented; most of the surviving material dates from after the Second World War and the later research on random distributions is the best represented. The Long Range Desert Group papers were assembled by Bagnold for a projected history of the Group and include original instructions for and reports of many operations and draft chapters of a 'war diary and narrative.' There are many maps relating to First World War service, desert exploration and the Long Range Desert Group. The collection also includes Bagnold's autobiography (posthumously published by the University of Arizona Press), childhood letters to his family from school and, of special interest, the little correspondence includes a 1928 letter to Bagnold from T. E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia').