These records of the Astronomy Department consist of miscellaneous departmental project files and materials relating to research grant proposals submitted to various sponsoring agencies. The records span the dates 1949-1971, with the bulk from 1963-1969, the height of the United States Space Program.

This series includes student papers from undergraduate and graduate Astronomy courses offered over scattered years between 1962 and 1977. The courses included are A20 Highlights of Astronomy, C10 Advanced General Astronomy, C50 History of Astronomy, D16 Interstellar Medium, Galactic Structure and Galaxies, and D20 Seminar: Topics in Astrophysics. The papers are mainly from Professor J. Allen Hynek's C50 History of Astronomy course and bulk during the period from 1973 through 1976.

The papers of Oliver J. Lee fill one half-size box. They consist of several biographical accounts, a small amount of correspondence, a poem, a tribute to his predecessor, Philip Fox, and reprints of his articles.

This series is comprised of four logbooks from the Organ Mountain Station of Northwestern University's Dearborn Observatory. Also known as Southwest Observatory, the station was located at Organ Pass, New Mexico, and was dedicated on April 7, 1961. It served largely as a development center for enhancing telescopic imagery and received funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The logbooks date between August 22, 1961 and October 26, 1965.