While the collection includes a few personal and family items, the bulk of the collection documents Frieman's work as a scientist, science advisor to government and industry, and science administrator. It is particularly strong in documenting science policy in the U. S. Government during the period 1979-1999, especially in the areas of physics, geophysics, energy, and oceanography. Includes significant quantities of material on global climate change research, atmospheric carbon dioxide, and other environmental issues central to the work of geophysicists and oceanographers during the final two decades of the twentieth century; documentation of the work of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) working under U. S. government contracts; documentation of space science, especially programs to collect information about the Earth by satellite, which were critical to oceanography, meteorology, and geophysics.

The papers include a small quantity of material documenting Frieman's work at Princeton including some of his work at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. He did not keep his lecture notes, so there is little to document his teaching. Though his records as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy and DOE Director of Energy Research remain with the dept., his papers include personal materials generated during his years at DOE, such as a scrapbook, calendars, and personal letters. The collection documents the scientific community, science-government relations, 1979-1999, the period of the Cold War, SDI, and the end of the Soviet Union, White House Science Council and science policy at the highest levels during the Carter and Reagan administrations. The collection includes Frieman's files on the University of California, UCSD, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Also included are significant material documenting the national laboratories, especially Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Papers include correspondence, manuscripts of lectures and publications, speeches, subject files, teaching files, photographs, reprints, notes and calculations.