The Department of Politics at Princeton University is one of the University's largest academic departments, offering undergraduate and graduate courses touching on nearly every aspect of the discipline of political science. The Department of Politics records document the activities of the Department of Politics and its faculty from the time of its founding in 1924 until the mid-1960s, and contain correspondence, course syllabi and notes, examinations, and subject files.

W. Willard (Bill) Wirtz was a lawyer, an arbitrator, a law professor, and served as undersecretary and secretary of labor under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He was a speechwriter for, and close advisor to, Adlai Stevenson from 1952 to 1960. The W. Willard Wirtz Collection on Adlai Stevenson documents Stevenson's campaigns for president in 1952 and 1956, as well as Stevenson's political activities in 1960 and in between campaigns. Because Wirtz was a speechwriter in 1952, in charge of speech content in 1956, and a close advisor and occasional speechwriter at other times, this collection most strongly documents the campaign activities of drafting speeches and fine-tuning campaign policy.

The collection contains the manuscripts of composer and educator Roger Sessions. It includes compositions reflecting his use of the 12-tone system of composition and ranging from exercises and studies to concertos, sonatas, operas ("Lancelot and Elaine" and "Montezuma"), and symphonies (1 through 9). Also included are miscellaneous musical works such as divertimenti, nocturnes, chorale studies, quintets, and cantatas along with the manuscripts for two prose works.

The Hamilton Fish Armstrong Papers consist of correspondence, notebooks, memoranda, material from 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization, writings especially in relation to Peace and Counterpeace and Tito and Goliath, diaries, scrapbooks, and photographs. The papers document Armstrong's career as editor of Foreign Affairs, his participation in the activities of the Council on Foreign Relations, and his professional involvement and interest in foreign policy from World War I through the 1970s. Included is correspondence with many well known political and literary figures of the time period. Some materials of a personal nature are included but the bulk of the papers relates to Armstrong's professional life. The papers also document Armstrong's participation in many philanthropic activities associated with Yugoslavia.

Consists of papers of the American author and novelist Wendell Wilcox (1906-1981), including personal correspondence and photographs of his wife, Esther Willson Wilcox, their relatives, and other writers and friends.

Consists of the papers of Hungarian-born, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Eugene Wigner, and includes correspondence, subject files, writings, and offprints reflecting his long career in physics.

Consists of papers and photographs of Alison Frantz (1903-1995), a classicist who was the photographer and specialist in Early Christian and Byzantine archaeology for the Agora excavations at Athens from 1933 to 1968 for the American School of Classical Studies.

Princeton University was a participant in the first intercollegiate football game in America in 1869. Since then, the University has maintained a varsity football team, competing each season against other colleges in the Ivy League Athletic Conference, including traditional rival Yale. The collection consists of film reels documenting Princeton varsity football games between 1935 and 1990, as well as video of the 2012 season.

Consists of over 100 cartons and boxes containing correspondence, legal documents, photographs, printed matter, and other material, which document both the careers and personal lives of Princeton graduates Daniel Moreau Barringer and his son, Brandon Barringer. Much of the material about Daniel Moreau Barringer focuses on the Meteor Crater in Arizona, which he spent a large part of his career studying and promoting.

Consists primarily of Carlos Baker's working papers and biographical files used in preparation of his biography Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story (1969). This was the fourth book on Hemingway written or edited by Baker (1909-1987), a Princeton professor and author. Also present are manuscripts for a novel and book of poetry by Baker, unrelated to his work on Hemingway.