Collection 87-38 (1940-1972) includes correspondence, student notes from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology, subject files, films, teaching materials, reports, patent records, calendars, data, telephone directories, and material docurmenting scientific societies, including the Optical Society of America. The accession includes some material that may more properly be considered records of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Visibility Laboratory, Office of the Director, such as Visibility Laboratory personnel records and other archival records.

Collection 2000-18 (1940-1974) consists almost entirely of subject and project files from Scripps Institution of Oceanography Visibility Laboratory. More than half the material in this accession documents the Visibility Laboratory Visual Acuity Experiment conducted on Gemini V and VII missions for NASA (1965-1967). The accession also includes several personnel files for Seibert Quimby Duntley, including his wartime National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) personnel file, and the University of California, San Diego bio-bibliography file documenting his work at the university during the years approaching his retirement.

Collection 2005-20 (1948-1980) includes files on the SIO Visibility Laboratory, Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), United States Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard; SIO Committee on Human Research, visibility, underwater optics, target luminance, and visual spatial integration.

Collection 2005-44 (1952-1968) includes subject files of Seibert Duntley.