Series 1 contains the professional correspondence of Professor Gerhard Dieke. While much of this material concerns Dieke's duties as chairman of the department, there is also a large amount of correspondence with colleagues at other universities, primarily other physicists in the field of spectroscopy.

Series 2 contains small amounts of correspondence by four Hopkins faculty members: J. Alvin Bearden, Donald E. Kerr, Aihud Pevsner, and Robert W. Wood.

Series 3 consists of final reports on research projects carried out by members of the physics department. Most of the projects were in the field of spectroscopy and were carried out under the auspices of the Office of Naval Research by Gerhard Dieke.

Series 4 consists of drawings for parts of various types of spectrometers. Most of the drawings are in the form of blueprints, circa 1963; not all of the drawings are dated.

Series 5 consists of grant applications and correspondence concerned with securing funding for both research projects and graduate student fellowships.

Series 6 contains class notes, examinations, and homework assignments from various classes offered in the physics department, as well as departmental course listings and correspondence between the the department and the registrar's office.

Series 7 consists of material relating to the day-to-day operation of the department. This includes: correspondence with the University administration; correspondence with and about students, and minutes of student-faculty meetings; and publicity material, such as newsletter, brochures and faculty biographies.

Series 8 contains material concerning relations between the department and other departments and divisions of the University. It includes correspondence with the Academic Council, the Applied Physics Laboratory, the Evening College, and the Department of Mechanics.

Series 9 consists almost entirely of correspondence between the physics department and the American Institute of Physics.

Series 10 contains a file for each graduate student who obtained an M.A. or Ph.D. in the department during the period 1940-1971. Most files contain correspondence, research papers, newspaper clippings, and applications for admission, scholarships, and fellowships; some files also contain photographs. In many cases contact was maintained with the student after the degree was conferred.

Series 11 contains correspondence, minutes of meetings, and schedules concerning the planning of the Rowland-Wood Symposium, held in November of 1975.

Series 12 consists of 35 bound volumes of papers presented by graduate students in the Physical Seminary.

Series 13 contains a folder of letters by prominent physicists, primarily to Joseph Ames, but also to Louis Bell, Henry Rowland, Karl Herzfeld, and Harold Pender. These letters were apparently pulled from their original files at some point for their autograph value. Authors include Niels Bohr, Lord Kelvin, Max Planck, Henri Poincar,̌ and Ernest Rutherford. Most of the letters contain routine correspondence or acknowledgements, although some, such as those by J.J. Thomson go into considerable detail concerning scientific research.