Includes correspondence, budgets, minutes, memoranda, reports, publications, photographs, and other records documenting the programs and activities of the U.S. National Committee (USNC) for the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Includes files of committee members Joseph Kaplan, Richard Porter, Waldo Smith, H.E. Newell and A.H. Shapley. Technical subjects include auroras, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, glaciology, gravity, ionospheric physics, meteorology, oceanography, rocketry, seismology, solar activity, interdisciplinary research, and earth satellite projects. Additional materials include motion picture films (now converted to betacam), photograph albums, glass slides, maps, and posters. Besides the papers of the USNC-IGY, the collection contains early papers of National Academy of Sciences and National Reseach Council activities that grew out of the IGY, e.g., the Committee on Polar Research; the Committee on Oceanography; the Geophysics Research Board; the Space Science Board; and the Committee on Meteorology.