The Revelle papers provide substantial documentation of his career and professional life and some documentation of his personal life and family.

The Revelle Papers include material documenting his early education at Pomona College and his doctoral research at Scripps (1929-1936), his naval career (1941-1948), his years as Scripps director (1950-1964), his efforts to establish University of California, San Diego (1954-1964), and his years as an advisor to the U.S. government and governments of developing nations on science policy, national resources and population (1964-1977). The Papers include correspondence, reports, data and other material documenting Revelle's confirmation of Darwin's theory of the origin of atolls (1947), the discovery of the submerged Mid-Pacific Mountain Range (1950), the first measurements of heat flow through the ocean floor (1950), the examination of atmospheric carbon dioxide and its environmental effects (1956+) and world problems of population, natural resources and development with particular regard to poor nations (1963+). The collection includes substantial documentation of Revelle's work and research on the Indian subcontinent. There is also a smaller quantity of material documenting Revelle's years at Harvard University as Director of the Center for Population Studies.

Among the correspondents in the collection are: Hans Bethe, Edward Crisp Bullard, K. O. Emery, Cecil Green, Richard Howell Fleming, Charles D. Keeling, John F. Kennedy, Harry Hess, Iselin, Columbus, Clark Kerr, Walter Munk, Murrough O'Brien, Ellen Virginia Clark Revelle Eckis, H. U. Sverdrup, Henry Stommel, Parker Trask, Stewart Udall, Harold Urey, Thomas Vaughn, Charles Wheelock, Alfred O. Woodford, Herbert F. York.