From 1935 to 1940, students from all over the United States participated in a contest to create posters inspired by the theme of Peace. The National Circulating Library of Students' Peace Posters, based in Philadelphia, sponsored the contest; in 1940, the winning posters were reproduced and sold as collectible, stamp-sized stickers. The sponsoring organization was founded by Nancy Babb, a Quaker who volunteered with the American Relief Administration's famine relief efforts in Russia in 1921.

The collection contains minutes of meetings of the various political parties and groups to which Volkov belonged, as well as manifestos, programs, and other materials derived from social-democratic activity. A small but significant part of the collection concerns the emergence of the Leningrad Popular Front and related organizations during the perestroika period.

The Maude Cleveland miscellany collection includes a world map that depicts our home state of California as an island. The map, likely printed in Amsterdam around 1750 and titled NIEUWE WERELD KAART, was created by Baron George Anson, a British admiral known for his circumnavigation of the globe and his oversight of the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War.

In 1956, the Arctic, Desert, Tropic Information Center (ADTIC) of Air University conducted a survival test as part of a program to assess air force survival equipment. A crew from the air force was sent to the harsh conditions of the Panama jungle to simulate an emergency survival situation. Although the field test was scheduled to last two weeks, the group stayed in the jungle for only six days.