Papers include correspondence, student notes and records, subject files, reports on research, files on professional organizations, teaching files, manuscripts of papers, lectures and books, committee files, weather forecasts, drawings, data, calculations, tide computations, instrument catalogs and descriptions, booklists and bibliographies, newspaper clippings and other material documenting the career and life of the physical oceanographer. The collection consists largely of material documenting McEwen's career at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It includes only a few files documenting his family and personal life. The collection includes substantial but by no means complete documentation of McEwen's research in hydrography and meteorology. Also includes annual reports on his research dated 1919, 1927-1934; some of McEwen's seasonal weather forecasts dated 1924-1936; manuscripts of his lectures and scientific papers that often describe his scientific methods and research; substantial amounts of data, weather diaries and logs, tide computations, mathematical calculations and research notes. A second accession includes: correspondence with Thomas Wayland Vaughan, scientists, journalists, and others; subject files regarding scientific meetings, staff meetings, students, budgets, and bibliographies; materials collected by George McEwen when he traveled to Japan in 1926 to attend the Pan-Pacific Science Congress; teaching material; manuscripts of papers by George McEwen and others.