The Kendall W. King Papers span the years 1959 to 2000 (bulk 1960-1979). The collection includes materials on cellulase, Mothercraft Centers,nutrition in Haiti, nutrition an meeting world food needs, and miscellaneous professional and personal papers.

Two reports on celluslase concern King's pioneering work on how complex carbohydrates are digested by microorganisms. The reports deal with the shortcomings of of cellulose and cellulose substrates for studying the mechanism of cellulose action and the the site of attack on substrate by cellulose.

The collection includes front matter and six chapters of King's manuscript, "Mothercraft Centers and the Malnourished Child," as well as reports, speeches, guidelines, and publications by King and others, including several reports by Ivan D. Beghin. Mothercraft or Nutritional Rehabilitation Centers aimed to educate mothers about how to feed and care for infants and young children using techniques compatible with their understanding and financial limitations. In developing countries, pre-school children are most vulnerable to restrictions in the food supply and, therefore, the group in which malnutrition is most serious.

King did pioneering work in Haiti establishing the Mothercraft Center concept and did research for the Haiti project at Virginia Tech. He began his work in Haiti in 1958 when he served on a nutrition survey investigating the nutritional status of the Haitian people. In 1959 to 1960 he lead a nutritional research project in Haiti. The collection includes reports and publications about appraisal of nutrition in Haiti and efforts to ameliorate malnutrition in children through research and Mothercraft Centers.

The papers contain United Nations' publications, reports, and guides from 1977-1979 on world hunger, family nutrition programs, and food and nutrition appraisal, research, education, and policies. Topices include efforts to combat malnutrtion in pre-school children, the place of vegetables in meeting the food needs of emerging nations, community action, and United Nations' nutrition policies and programs.

Correspondence in the collection is primarily with publishers about the Mothercraft Center manuscript (1972-1982). Other correspondence relates to the King scholarship fund. The collection also contains Warren H. Strother's interview with King, materials by King on generating research grants and evaluating faculty, poems by King, "Dr. Kendall King Memorial Address" by Frederick W. Harrison, and a "Resolution in Memory of Dr. Kendall King," adopted by the Council on Research of the University of North Carolina.