The collection is organised into nine series: biographical; correspondence; National Science Foundation; scientific experiments and expeditions; drafts of and research for articles; book drafts; data; notebooks, lectures, exhibits; and book compilation materials. The collection reflects the varied scientific interests of Henry Melson Stommel. A large portion of the collection consists of drafts and research for scientific books and articles, most of which he wrote after returning to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1978 after years of teaching at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institution of Technology. Although there is relatively little purely personal information, Stommel's colleagues often became his friends, so many letters contain some personal information. His correspondence, with scientific figures of the day, is wide-ranging.