Materials in the collection are in their original physical order. Newspaper clippings and oversize materials were removed from boxes and are located in flat files. The contents list below shows the collection grouped by subject or material type into nine series, arranged alphabetically by series title.

Series I: Artifacts includes awards and other objects collected by or given to Gilruth during his career.

Series II: Awards, Certificates, and Degrees contains a variety of certificates marking Gilruth's achievements, degrees, and memberships to organizations.

Series III: Correspondence includes primarily incoming professional letters and telegrams received by Gilruth.

Series IV: Interviews and Memoirs consists of transcripts and memoirs relating to Gilruth and other aeronautics professionals.

Series V: Lectures and Speeches contains texts and drafts of speeches given by Gilruth.

Series VI: Newspaper Clippings includes a variety of complete newspapers and specific articles about or collected by Gilruth.

Series VII: Personal Papers consists of diaries, itineraries, writings, and other personal materials.

Series VIII: Photographs contains photographs of professional projects, including Gemini and Apollo missions, as well as images of colleagues and NASA locations.

Series IX: Reports, Notes, and Professional Writings consists of writing created by Gilruth during his career, notes, research articles, and subject files.