The records of the Department of Political Science range in date from 1929 to 1969, and from 2015 - Ongoing, with the preponderance of them covering the period from 1945 to 1960. The material relates to courses, scholarships, inter-departmental cooperation, post-war planning and admissions. Several lecture series and seminars are also within this record group; Congress Off the Record, a lecture series of 1951- 1952, brought to the Homewood campus such notables as Christian A. Herter, Jacob Javits and Hubert Humphrey. Also invited were, among others, Harry Byrd, Henry Cabot Lodge and Margaret Chase Smith. For the most part, however, the records consist of faculty correspondence with students or graduate and professional schools.

Documents evaluative of students' work, e.g., grades or recommendations, have been removed and filed alphabetically by the name of the student concerned. Similarly, evaluations of faculty members or prospective faculty members have been removed. All such records are confidential.

The records have been filed alphabetically. Where a large amount of material has concerned a single subject, it has been filed separately; this material has been arranged chronologically within each file. Within the correspondence files, the material is alphabetical by correspondent or by the institution the correspondent is a part of.

The website series is organized separately from the rest of the collection and documents the general activities of the department beginning in 2015.