Papers relating to Sir Raymond Firth's research and professional career, including field notes and papers relating to Firth's research on the Tikopia, the Malayan peasantry and the New Zealand Maori; field notes and papers relating to Firth's studies of London kinship; texts of lectures and seminar papers delivered by Firth; subject files compiled by Firth; papers relating to relating to Firth's involvement with various academic and professional institutions, including the Association Of Social Anthropologists, the Australian National University, the Colonial Office, the Colonial Social Science Research Council, the West India Social Survey, and the London School of Economics and Political Science; correspondence, including correspondence with Bronislaw Malinowski and other professional colleagues. The collection also includes field notes, diaries and other papers relating to Rosemary Firth's research on the domestic economy of the Malayan peasantry.

Schapera's field notebooks from his work in Botswana (then Bechuanaland), recording work on the Kgatta, Kwena, Ngwato and Ngwakelse tribes; working papers and notes, including genealogies of royal families, correspondence, drafts of an unpublished book on David Livingstone; various printed documents on the subject of Botswana; and books from Schapera's library on the subject of David Livingstone.