The George Dalton Papers fill 59 boxes spanning the period 1945-1991. Most of the material dates from 1960 to 1991. The papers are organized in five main categories: biographical materials, education files, correspondence, teaching files, and publications.
Small amounts of material are arranged under the headings research files and papers presented before professional organizations. Within each category the files are arranged alphabetically by folder title unless stated otherwise.
The biographical materials include curricula vitae, notes and brief drafts for an autobiography, a long run of rather personal diaries (1952-1991; lacking, however, 1965-1968, 1974, 1979-1985), statements read at his memorial service, and a draft of his will.
The education files consist primarily of a draft and a final version of his doctoral dissertation.
The general correspondence (8 boxes) is arranged chronologically and contains letters relating to academic and professional matters as well as considerable personal material from and to Dalton. The special correspondence consists primarily of letters to and from colleagues and material concerning various publications.
The teaching files (19 boxes) is composed primarily of lecture notes and related reading notes), exams, grade sheets, and syllabi. Some of the lecture and reading notes were later used for various books and articles and are filed with those publications.
The publications category (25 boxes) contains substantial amounts of reading notes. Dalton's final (unpublished) work, on economic anthropology, is heavily represented by such notes and many manuscript and typescript drafts. (Both legal size boxes contain material related to this book). In the section on articles reprints are filed with drafts and notes pertaining to that article.
