The DuBridge Papers contain correspondence, reports, speeches, and memorabilia which reflect his tenure as chairman of the dept. of physics, University of Rochester; head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Radiation Laobratory; president of the California Institute of Technology; and his active participation in scores of professional, governmental and civic organizations. The earliest group of correspondence (1933-1947) is between DuBridge and two presidents of the University of Rochester, Rush Rhees and his successor Alan Valentine. Next chronologically are the papers relating to the MIT Radiation Laboratory (1945-1958). Among the correspondents in this group: Luis Alvarez, Vannevar Bush, Ernest O. Lawrence, Karl T. Compton, Sir Robert Watson-Watt, and Edward L. Bowles. Much of this correspondence documents the writing and publication of the 27 volume record preserving the history of wartime radar work.

The Caltech papers concern the academic divisions, associated research facilities, administrative and business matters, faculty, students, and trustees. Prominent faculty members represented are: George Beadle, Max Delbruck, Linus Pauling, Carl Anderson, Robert Bacher, Richard P. Feynmen, William A. Fowler, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Fritz Zwicky. Also included are information on the Jet Propulson Laboratory, the Seismological Laboratory, and the Mount Palomar and Mount Wilson observatories. Caltech's relationships with NASA and the Carnegie Institution of Washington are discussed. The administrative section includes correspondence between DuBridge and his assistants Charles Newton (1947-1960) and Lyman Bonner (1967-1968), as well as documentation of his extraordinary fundraising efforts for Caltech. The presidential correspondence includes such prominent names as Niels Bohr, Detlev Bronk, Sir John Cockcroft, Dwight Eisenhower, Theodore von Karman, I. I. Rabi, Dean Rusk, William Shockley, J. E. Wallace Sterling and Alan T. Waterman. Included is correspondence relating to his professional, government and civic activities: National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, Rand Corporation, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mellon Institute. He also served on the Atomic Energy Commission (1945-1968). One theme which surfaces throughout the collection is the threat of the Cold War and the political situation that imposed itself upon educational institutions in the 1940s and 1950s. Included is correspondence with Caltech alumnus, his statement entitled "Communism at Caltech?" (1949), and papers concerning Linus Pauling's publicly stated views, and the papers connected with Paul Orr (1955), H. S. Tsien (1948-1970), and J. R. Oppenheimer (1946-1968). Additional materials relate to publications, biographical material, club memberships, awards and honors, scrapbooks.