This collection consists of papers--including correspondence, schoolwork, diplomas, diaries, photographs, and printed materials--of Louis O'Shaughnessy, professor of mathematics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI); his wife Ida Surface O'Shaughnessy; their daughter, VPI mathematics instructor Betty O'Shaughnessy Bock; and the Surface family (parents and siblings of Ida Surface O'Shaughnessy).

The collection contains copies of extensive genealogy of the Surface, or Zerfass, family of Virginia, Indiana, and Ohio.