The Henry J. Kelley Papers include correspondence, notes, drafts and offprints of publications and research reports. The majority of the collection consists topic based subject/research files, files on individuals (correspondence, resumes, and papers), teaching/course materials, and conference/professional organizational files. There are drafts and final copies of papers by Kelley and others on a range of aerospace and other engineering topics.

The collection also includes slides and transparencies, most of which depict equations, charts, graphs, and occasional text. For the most part, these visual materials are unidentified.