The papers of Robert W. Wood include clippings, professional and family correspondence, and manuscripts. Topics discussed include Vernon Wood's paper on sodium vapor delivered to the Royal Society; Wood's work at Johns Hopkins; H. Kayser's book; Woods interests in optics; various discussion of sodium vapor; the San Francisco earthquake; dipole radiation; origin of the hypotheses of energy; family travel in the Pacific Islands, Europe, and particularly Scotland; Woods early education in Roxbury, Massachusetts; Wood's election as Honorary Fellow of the Microscopical Society; the Encyclopedia Britannica and Scientific American. Manuscripts are by and about Wood and focus on his work in optics. Correspondents include: Charles Vernon Boys, Pierre Curie, Heinrich Kayser, Lord William Thomson Kelvin, Heinrich Konen, Ladislaus Natanson, Wilhelm Ostwald, Max Planck, and Lord John William Strutt Rayleigh.