The collection consists of correspondence, appointment books, business records, music manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, and ephemera documenting the activities of Duke Ellington and the management of Tempo Music, Incorporated. There is a small amount of material relating to the Ellingotn family.

The papers of painter Philip Evergood measure 11.61 linear feet and date from 1890 to 1971. Found within the papers are biographical materials; personal and business correspondence; writings, including essays, lectures, speeches, and sound recordings of radio appearances; subject files; personal business records; printed material; scrapbooks; artwork, including oil paintings, sketches, and childhood drawings; and photographs of Evergood, his family and friends, and his work.

The papers of African American sculptor, painter, and land artist Beverly Buchanan measure 18.3 linear feet and 1.07 gigabytes, and date from 1912 to 2017 with the bulk of the material dating from the 1970s to the 1990s. The collection contains biographical material including address books, calendars, awards and education certificates, identification documents, family history research material, and a recorded interview with Marcia Yerman for Women in Art; correspondence with friends and colleagues including Lucy Lippard and Lowery Stokes Sims, and with galleries and museums such as Bernice Steinbaum Gallery/Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, the Georgia Museum of Art, and the High Museum of Art. Also included are writings such as artist's statements, journals and notebooks, notes, and writings by others about Beverly Buchanan; exhibition and project files including audiovisual documentation from Bernice Steinbaum Gallery and Steinbaum Krauss Gallery of various exhibitions; material related to professional activities including teaching files and grant and fellowship applications; personal business records such as sales and consignment records; printed material including clippings, exhibition and event announcements and catalogs, magazines, posters, a video recording of A World of Art profile, and other published material; and scrapbooks, including one documenting Buchanan's City Walls series, containing primarily photographs and artwork with some printed material. The collection also contains photographic material including photographs, snapshots, negatives, and photograph albums; and artwork including sketchbooks, drawings, folded cardboard artwork, and illustrated cards.

The Paul Singer papers measure 23 linear feet and date from circa 1880s to 1997. Materials include biographical documents, correspondence, writings and notes, exhibition and symposium files, travel files, personal art collection records, personal business records, printed material, artwork, artifacts, and photographs.

The papers of California conceptual artist and sculptor David Ireland measure 24.8 linear feet and 8.39 GB and date from circa 1910s to circa 2009, with the bulk of the material dating from 1960 to 2005. The papers include biographical material, correspondence, notes and notebooks, installation projects and exhibition files, teaching files, travel files, personal business records, printed and digital material and commercial recordings, photographic materials, artwork, and video and sound recordings.

The Sally K. Ride Papers consists of over 23 cubic feet of papers, photographs, certificates, and film, created or collected by Sally Ride and chronicling her career from the 1970s through the 2010s. The papers document Ride's lifetime of achievements and include material relating to her astronaut training and duties; her contributions to space policy; her work as a physicist; and her work as an educator, including Sally Ride Science and related STEM projects.

This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.

To a considerable degree, the James H. Howard papers consist of manuscript copies of articles, book, speeches, and reviews that document his professional work in anthropology, ethnology, ethnohistory, archeology, linguistics, musicology, and folklore between 1950 and 1982. Among these are a few unpublished items. Notes are relatively scant, there being somewhat appreciable materials for the Chippewa, Choctaw, Creek, Dakota, Omaha, Ponca, Seminole, and Shawnee. The chief field materials represented in the collection are sound recordings and photographs, but many of the latter are yet to be unidentified. A series of color photographs of Indian artifacts in folders are mostly identified and represent the extensive American Indian Cultural collection of costumes and artifacts that Howard acquired and created. Other documents include copies of papers and other research materials of colleagues. There is very little original material related to archeological work in the collection and that which is present concerns contract work for the Lone State Steel Company.

The records of the Fendrick Gallery measure 106.4 linear feet and span the years 1952 to 2001. The bulk of the collection is comprised of artist's files that document the gallery's relations with and representation of over 300 contemporary artists and sculptors, including Robert Arneson, William Bailey, Daniel Brush, Wendell Castle, Robert Cottingham, James Drake, John Dreyfuss, Walter Dusenbury, Roger Essley, Helen Frankenthaler , Sam Gilliam, Jasper Johns, Raymond Kaskey, Claude and Francois Lalanne, Albert Paley, Joseph Raffael, Carol Summer, and numerous other artists. Also found are subject, exhibition, commission, administrative, and financial files, as well as files documenting the gallery's relationship with other museums and galleries.

This collection consists of Willey Ley's personal files, including his business correspondence, book contracts, and galley proofs, as well as publicity concerning Dr. Ley and his activities, and inquiries and comments from Ley's readership during his tenure as columnist for Galaxy Magazine (1952-1969). The material also includes articles gathered by Ley on topics ranging from astronomy and space travel to biology and natural parks to mythology, psychic phenomena, and UFOs.