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The records are largely concerned with the administration of the department and the teaching and examining of students.

This collection of records assembled by John Willis Clark, documents the development of the former Botanic Garden in central Cambridge as the site - the New Museums site as it became known - for teaching and research in science subjects. Clark, who was Superintendent of the Museum of Zoology and Secretary of the Museums and Lecture Rooms Syndicate 1865-91, provided a contents list at the start of each volume. This has been transcribed in the descriptions below.

The archives of the Appointments Board and its successor, the Careers Service comprise the full range of operational records of the boards for men and women, separately and post-amalgamation. In this catalogue, the term Appointments Board before 1974 refers to the service provided for men only.

The archives are patchy in their coverage of departmental affairs; the largest proportion being records of the building of the new laboratories on Lensfield Road, including photographs.

The earliest records relate to Woodward's will, estates and the administration of his fossil collection. From the 1880s, administrative records of the burgeoning Department of Geology, its teaching, examining, and students, survive alongside papers for the lengthy project to build the Sedgwick Museum. The archives also include the papers of Professor T. McKenny Hughes, Woodwardian Professor 1873-1917.

The archives comprise a wide range of operational records, covering the management and development of premises and grounds, garden planting, gardening advice within and without the University, visitors and Friends, accounts, bequests (including that by Reginald Cory) and staff, as well as papers concerning interaction with the Botany School and botanical research in general.

The archives comprise limited quantities of administrative material, including of the Computing Service. Much more significant are the surviving records of EDSAC and EDSAC 2 [Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator], among the earliest electronic computers, developed in the late 1940s and 1950s.