The archives cover most areas of activity to varying degrees. There are relatively large groups of records relating to teaching, learning and research, to the development of the discipline, that is, in the 1960s and 1970s especially; and small quantities only relating to accommodation and finance. Minimal if any professional secretarial assistance was provided until the mid 1970s to support the handful of academic staff teaching and researching the field. This was reflected in the comparative disorder of the surviving records. For instance, there are gaps in key records series such as minutes and papers of the governing committee, later syndicate, in the 1950s and 1960s and those that survive may be found in the undifferentiated sequence of Committee Secretary's papers rather than in stand-alone minutes files.

The archives include those of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine.

Most records of the Whipple Museum and Library have been retained by current administrators.